Never Letting You Go
by xJasper-Jazulix
Summary: (Sequel to 'Together Forever') Jasper and Lapis have some things to work through, all while helping Steven fill the shoes of his mother, Rose Quartz. The threat of Homeworld retaliation looms over them, as the seven Crystal Gems try to live harmoniously. Super fluff. Mild violence, suggestive content, and language. Lasper. Jaspis. Japis. Review if you want! Please enjoy
1. Chapter 1

**JASPER**

Two months have passed since the Crystal Gems defeated Yellow Diamond. There had been no sign or news coming from Homeworld, leaving them with the constant wonder if they were going to be retaliated against or not.

Jasper kept herself busy, helping to train Steven, and doing other things around Beach City. She liked to keep her mind full of petty tasks and problems, because if she didn't she could feel a darkness ebbing at the edges of her mind. Today she found herself sitting in Garnet's temple room (with permission), staring up at the bubbled Gems. More specifically, at Yellow Diamond's cracked bubbled gem.

It could have been her in one of those bubbles. According to Lapis though, Garnet wasn't going to even let her live when she came to them for help. She didn't hold a grudge though, it wasn't worth her time anymore to think about those things. Garnet and her were... respectable comrades now. Almost like healthy rivals who trained and worked together for the greater good. She still wasn't completely into that superhero mumbo jumbo, but it made Steven happy. If Steven and Lapis were happy, she was happy.

She wasn't allowed to touch any of the bubbles, but it wasn't as if she wanted to. It would be her luck they would pop and some Gem Monster would appear and try to eat her. She stood up and gazed at the open lava pit, watching the bubbling magma with an odd fascination for its power.

The temple door opened behind her, and Garnet stood there, signifying that it was time for her to exit the room. She nodded to Garnet before passing her and entering Steven's room.

"Jasper, just in time!" Steven met her on the warp pad, and stared at her with stars in his eyes.

"What's up, kid?"

"Look what Lapis made for us!"

He held his hands out, showing her a large, round strawberry pie. Her mouth started to water just looking at it. Strawberries were her favorite human food she had tried so far. They sat at the counter and each ate a piece, enjoying the sweet, savory taste.

"Lapis thinks you're avoiding her. Are you mad at her?" Steven asked, between stuffing his face with pieces of pie.

Jasper swallowed what was in her mouth before speaking. "I'm not avoiding anyone."

"I heard her talking to Peridot last night. Sounds to me like you guys have some communicating to do!" He said, smiling at her all innocently.

"What? About what?"

Steven laughed. "You'll have to ask her."

Just then, Lapis and Peridot appeared on the warp pad, chuckling to each other. Jasper shoved the rest of her pie into her mouth before wiping her hands against her pants. She stood up, leaving her empty plate on the counter, and walked towards the front door.

"Jasper!" Lapis called to her, but she pretended not to hear her, picking up the pace and walking quickly towards the front door. She left Steven's house, and ambled down to the beach. She went to the small pier where the 'Gem Sloop' was knocking gently against the wood. She sat down on the edge and stuck her feet into the icy cold water. She gazed at the deep blue ocean, as her mind filled with a dark, tangible vision. It seems she couldn't escape her nightmares, even when she was awake.

 _Chains of water were bound around her wrists again as she struggled to reach the surface. Someone didn't want to let her go, someone was stronger than she was; holding her down against every urge she had to be free. When she finally reached the surface, she laid bent over on her knees, gasping for breath she didn't even need. She looked up into the eyes of the Gem she loved, Lapis Lazuli._

" _I can't let you go, you can't hurt Steven. I have to do this for him." Lapis said, tightening the grip on Jasper's wrists, pulling her down into the water once more, leaving only her arms and head hovering above the waves. She couldn't help but notice how tired the blue Gem looked, or how ratty her dress was._

" _Lapis, please let me go! You know I won't hurt him!" She begged, using every muscle in her body to try and lift herself up from the ocean Gem's grasp, but Lapis wouldn't relent._

" _I told you never! I'm never, letting you go!"_

 _She was pulled under then, water filling her lungs, and another water chain tightened around her neck. Her body glowed white with light as she changed into an amorphous blob; then suddenly she wasn't herself anymore, she was Malachite. Her conscience boiled the ocean with hatred; her heart was full of anger, and the feelings were suffocating her._

" _How could I think this could ever work? How could I think I could get past this feeling deep within my soul?" The large fusion monster spoke to herself, as her hair whipped around her furiously with the pulls of the ocean._

" _Because I love you, Jasper."_

 _Malachite looked down and saw Lapis flying in front of her, smiling warmly at her._

" _L-Lapis?"_

Jasper touched her face, the after effect of Lapis slapping her still stung deeply into her facial tissue. She focused her vision in front of her, and saw the real Lapis hovering in front of her. Was she _glaring_ at her?

"You're avoiding me! I want to know why!" Lapis demanded, the water behind her shot backwards as she waved her hands around angrily.

"I'm not avoiding you." She said simply.

"Please. That's why, just now, you immediately stood up and walked out of the house when I returned with Peridot?"

"I..."

"You... you do realize that the last time you've given me any sort of affection, physical or not, _was one whole month_ ago? It makes me think that you think I'm rotten! Did what I say really freak you out that much? What about when I asked you to _fuse_ with me, so we could enjoy each other emotionally for a while? No. You left angrily, without talking to me at all. I thought we were past this. You've forced me to hang out with Peridot, just to enjoy talking to someone of my own _kind,_ what with the other three off saving the world all the time."

Jasper turned her face away, but Lapis grabbed it with both hands and forced her to look back at her.

" _Tell me what's wrong!"_ She exclaimed; her eyes were glistening with newly forming tears.

"I can't! I can't tell you, without the fear of _losing_ you completely!" She shouted, squinting her eyes to keep her emotions under check.

Lapis didn't say anything in response to her. She just hovered there, looking like Jasper's words were destroying her slowly on the inside.

"I just... don't..." Lapis sighed, touching her toes down the surface of the ocean, standing on top of it with her hydrokinesis. "I wanted you to feel like you could tell me anything, but lately, it really feels like you... hate me..."

She did _not_ hate the ocean Gem. She was _afraid_ of her. She's been haunting her nightmares now, ever since that one fateful conversation after Yellow Diamond had been defeated. Even when she was fully awake, she had thoughts of what could have happened if Lapis would have tried to bind them under the ocean, keeping her locked there forever. These visions and nightmares happened so frequently, she almost believed it was something that was meant to happen to her. She wasn't supposed to be happy; she wasn't supposed to feel love...

Malachite was a monster.

No, Malachite _could have been a monster._

"Lapis..." Jasper stood and ran her hand through her hair nervously. It was time to do something she should have done a _long_ time ago. It was time for her to own up, and face her fears. She held her auburn colored hand towards Lapis, and took a deep breath. "Lapis, fuse with me."

Lapis clenched her fists and her teeth together, holding her arms tightly against her sides. She glared angrily at the hand Jasper had offered her.

"Lapis, it's always been your choice. This way, you can see what's been bothering me."

Lapis made eye contact with her, and unclenched her fists. She took her hand, and they walked off the pier onto the beach. Lapis pointed her toes out towards the sand, and raised her hands above her head, looking towards Jasper from under her bangs. Jasper took her around the waist and pulled their bodies together as they became synchronized. Lapis leaned her body back, reaching her cerulean hands towards the stars, and sliding her leg up Jasper's thigh. Their gem's glowed, and their bodies fused together to form Malachite.

 **MALACHITE**

Malachite fell to her hands and knees as all of Jasper's fears and worries poured into their shared conscience. It was more of a feeling of terror that enveloped her mind, not coherent words or specific context. The strength of those fears threatened to shove them apart, but she was able to keep herself together for now.

"I'm a monster."

"No, I'm not a monster! This isn't real!"

"You really think I hate you..."

"You're stressed, you just need to relax! I can help us relax."

Malachite gripped the sand beneath her, letting the coarse sand sift between her fingers as she leaned back to sit on her calves.

"You should have told me about your nightmares. Are you really afraid of me?"

Malachite stood, and gripped her face as it tried to defuse again.

"What are you digging so deeply for? I told you that you could see what I have to share with you, but stay _out_ of there!" Malachite dropped her hands to her sides at that moment, her inner thoughts going silent. She took one look at the sky, and then she ran.

She ran until she couldn't anymore, until she fell to her knees in exhaustion. She wasn't physically incapable; she was just mentally drained. She couldn't keep their form together any longer. She reached her hand out, lightly plucking a small pink flower out of its roots in the grass.

"I am not a monster." She reiterated to herself. She defused, splitting back into Jasper and Lapis.

 **LAPIS**

As Lapis separated from Malachite, she brought her hand down across Jasper's cheek, and down against her own chest. Jasper had felt such extreme terror in her nightmares, that it had prevented her from committing to any social interactions with her. She was afraid of her, and it made her heart feel heavy in her chest. She turned on her heel and walked a few feet from the orange Gem.

She had also dug too deep into the other's conscience, discovering a painful story she didn't want to recall right now.

"I wasn't ready for you to know. I don't know if I'll ever be ready." Jasper's hoarse voice spoke behind her, and she didn't turn, but continued to look up at the stars.

"I know. I'm sorry." She turned, and looked up into Jasper's glowing yellow eyes. "It was just a fleeting thought. I didn't mean..."

"I'm not mad, Lapis. It's okay. I should have just talked to you. I never should have avoided you. Or lied to you. Or forced you to spend time with Peridot."

Lapis giggled a little, thinking about the neon green Gem who was now her good friend. She actually had been very consoling, in her own way.

"Can we... hug now?" She asked, tossing away her thoughts about Peridot.

Jasper stared at her. She became disheartened, but that feeling disappeared when Jasper picked her up with one hand behind her neck, and one hand under her knees. The larger Gem squeezed Lapis so tight; if she would have been human she might have suffocated. Lapis pressed her face against Jasper's breast, so she could listen to the other's steady heart beat.

They laid down in the plush grass, facing each other in a close embrace; just enjoying each other's company. Lapis missed this; after being away from it for so long, these small snuggles felt like a new experience to her. She herself had been struggling a lot since the clash, but she chose to put her feelings aside so she could figure out what was wrong with Jasper.

She didn't even think Steven knew that she took all the mirrors from the city and destroyed them violently, while reliving her torture from Yellow Diamond. She was a mess; they both were.

Lapis turned on her other side, and she was very surprised when Jasper pulled her against her tightly like she was afraid she was going to leave. Lapis held onto Jasper's arm and closed her eyes.

 _She was suddenly there, in a living nightmare. Why did she have chains around her wrists? She followed the chains with her eyes, and saw they were connected to the arms of Jasper, who was crouched down, staring at her reflection in the minty greens of the sea below them. She touched the orange Gem's shoulder lightly._

 _Jasper whipped around with violent movements, striking out at her in absolute terror. She stumbled back, rubbing her arm where Jasper had made contact._

" _No! You can't keep me trapped here!" Jasper screamed, her voice was distorting; almost making it sound like her own voice was screaming back at her._

" _I don't want to trap you here, you've trapped yourself here." Lapis said softly. If this were somehow really happening, now was her chance to try and help her._

" _That's not possible. **She** isn't possible without you!"_

 _Lapis strode back over to the disheveled Gem and knelt down in front of her. She couldn't stand seeing the mistrust and anger glistening in her eyes._

" _Why do you hate me so?"_

" _I love you." She said with as much compassion and feeling behind it as she could._

" _Love... You love me..."_

" _Yes, Jasper. I will love you now and forever; and always after that. There's no reason for you to be afraid anymore."_

 _To dispel any more negative feelings Jasper may have had, Lapis brought their lips and bodies together in a familiar, loving embrace. The water chains melted, and their kiss deepened; the gesture caused their gems to glow again._

" _When I'm with you, we can overcome anything. Together, Forever."_

 **MALACHITE**

They were Malachite once more, lying in that same spot in the grass; arms wrapped around herself like she was hugging herself. She sat up, and ran her hand though her hair. She started to giggle to herself. She felt so good, like a giant weight was lifted off of her chest; like she could breathe again. She looked down at herself, noting her change in height. She stood, and figured she was about as tall as Varisite now. She put her hands on her hips, and looked up at the now baby blue sky. There was something she had been longing to do, for a long time. _She wanted to fly._ The gem on her back lit up, and four large water wings shot from her back. She flew into the sky, and soared through the clouds, determined to just _feel_ while she was fused.

She landed on the beach in front of Steven's house, where Steven was practicing summoning his shield.

Peridot was chilling on the deck, doing something on her fingerscreen. She looked up immediately when the fusion dropped from the sky in front of them. Malachite sat in the sand and stretched out her legs, pulling down the skirt she was wearing.

"I take it you guys talked." Peridot stated monotonously, pulling her fingers from the screen form, back into the shape of a regular hand.

"Peri." Malachite smiled, nodding towards the green Gem.

"Malachite!" Steven cried out, looking at her with stars in his eyes. "I haven't seen you in forever! Does this mean you're going to have a baby now?"

Malachite's smile instantly disappeared, and her body poofed, sending Jasper and Lapis hurtling into the ground. They both sat up, and looked at each other with flushed faces.

 **LAPIS**

"Wait, _that's_ what you meant when you said 'I want to take the next step in our relationship', I thought you meant constant fusion, like Garnet! It freaked me out!" Jasper gasped, crawling over to Lapis and taking her hands. "I know some Gems _like_ to be fused all the time, but fusion for me... I'll do it every once in a while... but I just... I like to hold you Lapis, physically. All that mental stuff, I can only take so much... But you... why didn't you just say you meant... gemlings..."

Lapis' face was a shade of blue so dark, she thought she was going to faint; it felt as if all the blood in her body had rushed directly into her face. She felt a heavy pressure building up in her gut, and she couldn't contain her laughter. She howled in a fit of giggles, and when she looked at Jasper's face, she couldn't help but laugh harder.

"Y-You... Clod..." She managed to say.

Peridot face-palmed herself, and leaned back again, sticking her nose back into her fingerscreen. Lapis swore she heard something about clod's escape her mouth. She took a deep breath, to try and steady her breathing.

"See you guys just need to communicate better, like I said! Awe..." Steven swooned, clasping his chubby hands together and looking at them.

"Steven!" They both yelled, causing Peridot to giggle fiendishly from her perch on the deck.

"Yes, Jasper, I've been thinking about gemlings. I've been thinking it would be great if we were to raise one together." Lapis said, eyeing her curiously.

"You know they're little monsters right?"

"I think it'd be cute."

"I don't think we need one."

"I want one!" She insisted.

Jasper puffed out her cheeks. "No."

"Yes!"

"Absolutely not!"

Now Lapis was pouting. She was irritated. All of their problems had been because of some stupid misunderstanding, and now that she was trying to talk to the orange Gem, she wouldn't even listen to her. She jumped up and clenched her fists. "Well, if you won't give me one... I'll just have to... make Peridot give me one! Ugh!" She stomped away, leaving Jasper super confused, and super drained.

 **Author's Note: Hurray! I finally started this! Man, that Steven Bomb broke my heart, I had to write this chapter as soon as I watched that last episode... Our poor bara wife... And Lapis of course. I need all the fluff I can get to bandage my bleeding soul. Anyways, like always, I'm open to suggestions for things you might wanna see; and I will answer questions if people are confused about stuff. Pleasant reading, and thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**The concept of these particular gemlings are referenced from sallychanscraps on tumblr, who has a guide of how they portray gemlings. I like the cute way better, this story is rated T after all! Fluffy fluffy bed of Jaspis fluff. I'm sleepy.**

 **JASPER**

A gemling? A gemling. Lapis wanted a gemling. Was she crazy? That was the only explanation she could come up with for why she wanted a little runt version of themselves running around wrecking everything in sight.

"Jasper, you're an idiot." Peridot said, sitting next to her on the couch. "You do realize she's gonna mope until you talk to her, right?"

"Gah. I don't know what the big deal is, I had to train young Gems for the military, and that was a terrible, horrid experience." She shuddered.

"Those Gems weren't your own! Do you even understand the _concept_ of forming gemlings? The Gems you trained for the military were made from the Kindergarten injectors. That's completely different... Wait, you really didn't know about the second way to make a gemling? Oh ho ho ho ho..." Peridot sneered, covering her mouth as she giggled at Jasper's expense.

There were... two ways to make new Gems? Why wasn't she ever informed of this? Maybe because she was a great Gem General and Yellow Diamond hadn't wanted her to run off and create her own army to rebel against her, or something. Not that she would ever do that.

"You've got to be kidding me..." The green Gem chuckled even louder.

Pearl's door opened then, and Pearl came out of her temple room, humming softly to herself and carrying one of her old looking swords. She set it on the counter, and raised her eyebrows at the two Gem's sitting on the couch staring at her.

"Can I... help you?" She asked uneasily, crossing her arms defensively in front of her chest. Jasper could tell Pearl still wasn't very accepting of them in Steven's home, or of them being a part of the team now, but she didn't really have a choice in the matter anymore. She usually avoided them, hardly ever stopping to actually converse with them.

"Oh Pearl, you just walked into an emotional tornado. Lapis asked Jasper to further their relationship, and Jasper thought that meant permanent fusion." Peridot snorted, and Jasper watched Pearl's face distort the more the green Gem spoke to her. "Lapis wanted a _gemling_ , not fusion, and now they're fighting again. Oh, and Jasper thought the only way to make Gem's was through the Kindergarten."

"What...?" Pearl's eyes suddenly lit up as her former scowl stretched out into a wide-grin. "Oh, Jasper that's silly. I'll teach you how gemlings are made, but where's Steven?"

"He's out with Connie, hanging out at the arcade." Peridot waved her hand, and sat forward on the edge of her seat.

"Alright. Good." Pearl projected a hologram screen in front of them with her gem. "So, when two Gem's share a deep, loving connection to one another, one Gem can 'donate' their affection to another, by touching their gems together, creating a geode inside the carrier's Gem. After a while, when it's good and ready, the geode can be summoned from their Gem. During the 'term' per say, the carrier Gem could feel extreme fatigue, moodswings, and physical pain in and around their gem. The gemling that emerges from the geode will look like one of the 'parents', but will basically be a product of love. If there are multiple siblings of the same Gem, they can eventually meld to become larger and stronger. Two different ones could meld too, but they would change into their fusion form, but they wouldn't actually be a fusion, if that makes any sense at all. Oh! It's also possible for both Gem's to carry, but it's very rare!"

Jasper took a deep breath, and blinked a few times. Gem's were more unbelievable that she had thought. She didn't even know that they could do that. She didn't remember much from her own gemling days, so she had nothing to compare it to.

"See you clod, do you still not want one?" Peridot asked her.

She was about to respond, but Steven and Connie burst through the door, breathing heavily. Steven even collapsed on the floor with his hands stretched out in front of him like he was completely pooped out.

"Guys! Help!" He gasped, before rolling over and summoning his shield to protect himself from a beam of light that had shot towards him, destroying the front part of the house.

"What the..." Jasper jumped up, and stood next to Pearl, who pulled her spear from her Gem. Standing outside on the beach, was a large scorpion monster, shooting laser beams from its tail. Jasper had never seen anything like it before in her life.

Pearl pointed her spear at the scorpion's face, and shot bullets of light towards it. Jasper went up underneath it, and grabbed one of it's front legs, and bent it backwards, causing the leg to poof away. The creature clamped its jaw onto her shoulder muscle, and lifted her up into the air.

"Lower your head!" Pearl yelled at her. She did, and the white Gem's spear narrowly missed her head as it stabbed through the creatures jaw and caused it to poof. Jasper landed on her back, the creature's gem landing in the sand next to her.

"Are you alright?" Pearl asked, picking up the gem and bubbling it.

"There's never a dull moment around here, is there?" She groaned, putting a hand on her arm to stop the bleeding.

"Unfortunately, being the only beings on Earth with magic, these corrupted Gem's are drawn to us. Ugh, I just had this house all fixed up too..." Pearl sighed, leaving Jasper and going up towards the house.

Jasper looked down to watch her shoulder heal, before going back up into the half destroyed house. She stood in front of the temple door, crossing her arms and tapping her foot. She raised her fist to knock, but the door opened, splitting in the shape of a blue teardrop.

"Lapis..."

The blue Gem shoved her way past her, and sat on the couch next to Peridot, leaning against her arm with her finger screen pulled up. Jasper felt a jealous growl escape her throat, but she couldn't move from her spot, she was conflicted, and her feet refused to budge.

"Peri, did you think about what I said? Help a Gem out." Lapis said, pulling Peridot's hand down so she would stop focusing on her screen, and start paying attention to her. Peridot sighed, and Jasper thought she noticed the smallest of blushes on her cheeks.

"Don't put me in the middle of your tedious feud." She frowned deeply at Lapis.

"But Peri..."

"Absolutely not! I want to live! Besides, I don't have that 'deep connection' with you. It would never work. If anyone should have gemlings, it should be you Clods, not me. I don't have the time or tenacity to care about that stuff."

"But..."

"Lapis! You do realize you're being completely insensitive? Like a child? Just because Daddy said no, doesn't mean Mommy is going to say yes! Now please, drop it." Peridot sighed heavily, again, and made eye-contact with Jasper from her spot on the couch. "Would you take care of your Gem woman please?"

Lapis wiped her face with the back of her hand, and sat up straight on the couch.

"Just forget about it, I'm... I'm done asking."

Jasper's heart felt heavy. She was so unsure about the whole situation. What if she wasn't a good mentor? What is she were sleeping and accidentally rolled over and crushed the gemlings and they turned to dust? Would they even be in the same bed as her? Did they eat? Of course they ate, those brats she trained never stopped eating until they were adults... Ugh, there were so many bad things that could happen...

The warp pad activated, and she saw Lapis warp away. She willed her feet to move, and chased after the blue Gem. She appeared in the Strawberry Battlefield, and saw Lapis running off down the paths between the giant berries. Where in the world was she going?

She took off after her, but she couldn't catch up. She didn't realize how fast the ocean Gem could run, and Jasper _really_ needed to get back into the habit of running more. She had to slide to a sudden stop in front of the edge of a cliff, where there were several floating masses of rock in front of her. Her eyes caught a glimpse of Lapis, who had sprouted her wings and was now flying away, further from her.

She was determined to catch up and have a few words with that Gem, if she would even stop to talk to her. Jasper squatted down, and pushed off the ground; leaping from one floating rock to the next, until she tumbled onto one large mass where there was a small pool of blue water in the middle. Lapis was sitting in the water with her head on her knees, and her knees pulled up to her chest. Her shoulders were shaking, making Jasper wonder if she were crying. She placed herself behind Lapis, stretching out each leg to one side of the smaller Gem; and she placed one of her large hands against the tear-shaped Gem on Lapis' back.

"You know, I've never been afraid of anything as much as I have been when I'm around you. I don't think it's a bad thing, but it sure is a pain in the neck..." Jasper reached back and scratched her neck, waiting for a hint of response from Lapis. Nothing. She decided to keep talking instead.

"One time, Yellow Diamond assigned me to train a group of Gem's that were newly formed in a Kindergarten on a distant planet. The Gem's made there, were wild little monsters that I had to put through rigid training regiments; pounding into their little skulls their duties and responsibilities as Gem Warriors. I trained them to die with their comrades, and I told them they were only worth something if they gave up their existence for the Diamond Authority. I crushed many, many, many young Gems in that time; out of frustration, and tactical need; of my own free will."

"Therefore, you have to understand the idea of having one or eight of my own; or however many terrifies me now, because I don't want to mess it up. I'd be a terrible parental figure."

Lapis looked up from her knees and sniffled, wiping her eyes with her palms. She scooted herself back against Jasper's torso, leaning her head back to look up at her, like she was waiting for Jasper to say something more. She didn't, because she had nothing more to say.

"Every single day since Yellow Diamond tortured me, I have relived that torture over, and over, and over. Each time that scenario plays in my mind, the pain is tenfold; and those feeling of wanting to just die, are unbearably strong. That's why I haven't been sleeping. The nightmares stare back at me every time I see my reflection in a mirror. The thought of going back inside one, absolutely _terrifies_ me. At one point I even broke into everyone's house and their buildings in Beach City, and I destroyed all the mirrors I could find, after stealing them and hiding them away in a cave..." Lapis took Jasper's hands and put them in her lap, tracing the line's of her palms with her fingers.

"I saw how you were reacting towards me, and I didn't want to handle it anymore; until I started thinking about the wonderful life we could have, now that the Gem who hurt me was bubbled away, and we could spend eternity together. It may seem _human_ to you, but I think eternity is pretty _Gem_ as well."

Jasper's chest swelled with emotion; she had been so caught up in her own fears she hadn't even thought to make sure Lapis was taken care of. She was a terrible girlfriend, and almost wished she was trapped under the ocean where she belonged...

She brought her face down against Lapis' shoulder blades, and squeezed her tightly.

"I didn't... I'm sorry, I was so selfish, worrying about myself without even making sure you were okay. I'm so sorry..."

"I forgive you, _of course I forgive you."_ Lapis' response was shaky; she started to cry again. Jasper kissed the tear-shaped Gem on Lapis' back, before touching their Gem's together, creating a small spark between them, causing their bodies to shiver in response.

The next few hours were spent enjoying each other mentally and physically, under the light of a thousand shining stars. It was as if they were relearning how their bodies moved and melted against one another. The dark blue pallor of Lapis' skin where her entire cheeks flushed was something Jasper had missed. She also missed the way her azure blue eyes sparkled at her when they gave into each other; the sounds emanating from the deepest vibrations of her soul fueled her. When they were both satisfied, they cuddled under the moon, bodies so close, and their minds clear of anything that had previously plagued them.

When they returned to Steven's house together, they were holding hands, and had huge smiles adorning their faces. They sat down on the couch and cuddled in the corner; Jasper watching Peridot playing a game on the pull down screen. She looked down at Lapis and saw the blue Gem had actually fallen asleep laying against her.

"Man, secretly I wanted you guys to break up so I wouldn't have to watch your sickly sweet PDA anymore, but I suppose I'll get over it." Peridot said sarcastically, pausing her game to look at her.

"Peridot... I think... I think we did it." Jasper said softly, running her hands though Lapis' hair.

"Ew. I don't need to hear about your crazy se..."

"Not that! Well that, but I mean, our Gem's touched and glowed, and I felt a spark between us. So, does that mean Lapis is a carrier now?" She asked awkwardly, unsure of how to ask such an embarrassing question.

"Wait," Peridot looked from Lapis to Jasper, and back to Lapis again. "I'm never going to understand you two. And there's no way to tell until the symptoms start. That could be a few hours, or it could be a couple days, who knows."

"Oh, okay. Ugh... It just kinda happened but, I'm gonna be okay now I think."

"Well, that's good. I guess."

 **LAPIS**

Lapis was exhausted. When she woke up in Jasper's lap, she was disoriented and had no idea how long she had been asleep.

"What day is it... uh..." She sat up and looked around. Pearl was doing dishes in the kitchen, while Amethyst, Garnet, and Peridot were sitting at the counter chatting idly among themselves. She stood from the larger Gem's lap and stretched, seeing Steven walk in the front door.

"Good, everyone's here." Pearl said, putting the dishes down and turning to face them all. "As you all know, Yellow Diamond has been securely bubbled for 65 Earth days; or roughly 2 months. Garnet was just telling me that while checking on other Gems, Yellow Diamond's Gem started to glow while _inside_ the bubble."

"She was trying to form. Nothing like that has ever happened before." Garnet added, adjusting her shades and turning around on her stool.

"What, that's scary!" Amethyst shuddered. "Is she still bubbled? Let's just destroy her gem!"

"Of course she is, nothing has ever unbubbled without... outside help." Pearl looked at Steven while saying this. "But we can't destroy her gem, we don't know if it still holds corruption inside of it or not. She has to stay in the bubble."

"So, if she's still bubbled, then what's the big deal? She can't hurt us from in there, right?" Steven asked, giving them all a deep look of concern.

"I'm worried. Her trying to reform just feels foreboding. We need to be sure your training stays on schedule; all of us need to be on our toes. Um... Jasper are you okay?" Pearl's tone changed quickly. Lapis spun around to see Jasper standing rigidly, clutching her gem with widened eyes. Her face was twisted with a look of pain, beads of sweat glistened across her brows. The larger Gem's knees faltered, and she fell down to one knee, still clutching her gem.

"Shit..." Jasper groaned.

"What's wrong? Did fighting the scorpion monster crack your gem?" Pearl asked, as the six of them circled around the larger Gem.

"Nope, that's not it." She grimaced, Lapis saw her cheeks slowly turning a dark shade of red, and she heard Peridot giggling next to her.

"Tell us what's wrong with you! I demand to know!" Pearl shrieked, taking a step back behind Garnet like she was afraid Jasper was going to snap and attack her or something. Jasper remained silent, and it was really starting to worry her.

"Garnet your face!" Amethyst laughed, pointing at the fusion Gem. Lapis followed the gesture to see a smile twitching on Garnet's generally stoic features. It was like she was struggling between two emotions she wanted to portray; the need to smile, and the need to frown respectfully. Peridot started to laugh even harder, Lapis thought maybe she had finally cracked mentally and was going insane. The suspense was killing her.

Jasper fell forward onto the floor, crying out loudly like she was in even worse pain than before. Lapis thought that she honestly looked like she was sick, but Gem's didn't get sick in the way human's did, so what was wrong with her?

"Lapis." Jasper reached out and grabbed a hold of her hand. "I'm... I think I'm carrying." She said softly.

"Carrying? No, you're lying face down on the ground, and I have to idea what's wrong with you!"

This statement made Peridot clutch her stomach and fall over, rolling around on the floor and laughing hysterically in a fit of giggles. Pearl clasped a hand over her mouth and stifled a giggle too at her expense. Garnet continued to smile, and Amethyst just stood their gaping at Jasper.

"L-Lapis..." Peridot stuttered. "When did you become so _dense_? You finally get what you want and you don't even... bahahaha..."

Jasper said she was carrying.

 _Holy hell._

"Oh my gosh! You're _carrying as in carrying?_ Oh my gosh." Lapis finally understood. Jasper was carrying geodes within her gem! They were going to have gemlings! _Jasper was carrying._ Why did this thought make her want to roll on the floor laughing with Peridot too?

Jasper groaned, finally pushing herself up and rubbing her gem. Her face was still flushed, but she didn't think the large Gem was in as much pain as she was a few minutes ago.

"I don't understand why I'm the carrier..."

"Wait, are you guys finally going to have a baby? I'm so excited!" Steven said with stars in his eyes.

"Ugh. Steven, yes." Jasper responded weakly.

"It's not a given which Gem will end up carrying and which one won't. It's completely random. Yet, had I actually realized you two wanted gemlings, I probably would have advised you two not to..." Pearl started to drabble, but Garnet put a hand on the white Gem's shoulder.

"This is good for them. They'll be okay." The fusion gem said. "Congratulations."

"Congratulations!" The other Gem's cheered, while Peridot snorted into another fit of giggles.


	3. Chapter 3

**LAPIS**

 _One Week Later_

Lapis heard tales of how terrible _human pregnancies_ could be, and Amethyst was making it seem like Gem carrying was going to be just as bad. So, she was pleasantly surprised when Jasper's demeanor didn't change; and she had to wonder if she was actually carrying or not. She had no idea what this was like, having gemlings in this fashion was not a very common Gem tradition; many Gems didn't take up serious companionship with one another; well according to Jasper that's how it was now. When she used to live on Homeworld, Gem's loved to spend time with each other, enjoying each other's company and actually talking to each other, creating life-long friendships. She was reminded of Jasper's carrying status one day when she was watching Pearl at the Sky Arena, training Connie how to sword fight. Jasper was helping Steven summon his shield on command.

"The only way to learn, is through action! If you want to live, you'll defend yourself, it's as simple as that! Otherwise, you'll get hurt, and you'll definitely defend yourself the next time!" Jasper shouted, maybe a little too harshly by Lapis' standards to the small hybrid boy. She watched as Jasper summoned her Crash Helmet, and charged at Steven. He instantly summoned his bubble around him, which she slammed her head into and popped it. She threw her fist towards him and he raised his arm, determination glistening in his eyes. His shield appeared and blocked the larger Gem's ruthless assault. Jasper didn't seem like she expected this, because she stumbled backwards with a shocked expression on her face.

She regained her composure, and cracked her knuckles. Steven's shield disappeared, and he mimicked her by cracking his own knuckles, even though they didn't make any noise.

"Steven!" Connie yelled, running towards the small human boy. Pearl was right behind her, with an oddly fierce look about her face.

"Connie! Never run from battle! You have to be prepared to give it your all! You have to be prepared to die for your cause!" She was screaming louder than Jasper, and it was a little freaky.

Lapis felt chills down her spine when she heard those words, so reminiscent of the things Jasper had supposedly told young military Gems when she had trained them for the war.

Connie and Steven grabbed each other's hands and spun around. Steven's gem glowed through his shirt, and Lapis' jaw dropped as she watched the two of them _fuse_ right in front of her. She couldn't believe her eyes.

"Together I'm stronger! I could probably take both of you on now!" The newly formed fusion taunted to the two Gem's before her.

"Stevonnie!? You're not going to have time to perform a fusion dance in the heat of battle! You have to learn how to do things for yourself!" Pearl shrieked, pointing her sword at the mostly human fusion. Pearl looked to Jasper, who was just as shocked as Lapis was about Steven fusing with his human friend. She wondered what the ex-general was thinking about this current revelation.

Stevonnie summoned her shield, and pointed Rose's sword towards Pearl.

"We'll just have to fuse before the fighting even begins!"

"Ugh! Jasper, tell them they're wrong!" Pearl insisted, waving her hands about angrily.

"Pearl..." Jasper said, looking her square in her eyes. "In the words of the famous Garnet; It kinda sounds like you're mad... because you're single."

Lapis snorted. Pearls jaw dropped and she blushed deeply.

"What!? That's crazy..."

Jasper stepped between Stevonnie and Pearl, and clenched her fists.

"I'll face you, Stevonnie. Pearl, go sit your jealous ass down." Jasper widened her stance, and held her fists up. Stevonnie looked back at the orange Gem with stars in her eyes.

Stevonnie ran at Jasper with a speed even Lapis hadn't expected. Lapis leaned forward in her seat, feeling nervous about the fight going on in front of her. Stevonnie was quick, jabbing her sword quickly towards Jasper, who seemed to dodge her strikes easily enough. Jasper went in to grab the fusion's sword arm, but Stevonnie countered her with a shield bash; causing her to stumble. Lapis stood up in time to watch in horror as Stevonnie impaled Jasper straight through the chest with Rose's sword.

"Jasper!" Lapis screamed, running towards them. Stevonnie seemed to recoil at what she had done, and fell backwards; crying out before splitting apart back into Steven and Connie. Jasper's body poofed, and her gem fell down, clinking against the ground.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" Steven cried, picking up Jasper's gem and holding it in his cupped hands.

"I didn't think she was going to.. But wow, we did it Steven! Steven?" Connie put her hand on his shoulder comfortingly, and looked at the orange Gem in his hands.

Lapis was seething with anger. She loomed over the two human children, and glared at them, clenching her teeth tightly together.

"Lapis! They didn't mean any harm!" Pearl called, running towards them.

Steven held the gem up to Lapis and winced. Lapis grabbed the gem and held it close to her chest. What was Jasper thinking, fighting in her condition? What if something terrible happened to her, and by some horrible magical accident, she lost the geodes? She glared at Steven and Connie. They were lucky that the ocean was so far down below them, or she'd probably flood them with a cascade of water right about now. She was so mad, her body started to shake.

"Lapis, it was an accident, I'm sorry..."

"Just go away Steven, and leave me alone!" She snapped at him.

He pouted his lips a little, before grabbing Connie's hand and pulling her out of the arena. Lapis took a deep breath, and walked over to the edge of the arena where it opened up to reveal the Earth below her. She sat down, letting her feet dangle over the edge, and stared at Jasper's gem in her hands. There weren't any cracks or anything, so she concluded she was going to be fine. Now that she was sitting alone, she kinda felt bad for acting so aggressively towards Steven.

She heard someone's _heavy_ footsteps behind her, and groaned a little to herself.

"You know, it's kind of funny, watching Pearl's hologram of Stevonnie kicking Jasper's ass and you freaking out over her like some protective mama bear from hell. I bet you if you had the ocean right now, you woulda drowned those kids just for making her poof." Peridot sat next to Lapis and kicked her feet back and forth in the open space.

"I don't need your condescending shitty attitude right now, Peridot. She could have been seriously hurt!"

"Oh please. Relax. This is Jasper we're talking about, and she is just fine! You're both going to be just fine, just stop being an overprotective bitch before Pearl decides to just kick us out or something. Seems like something she would do.. The more time I spend with that Gem, the more I think her brain fried a little back in the day..."

All Lapis did was hiss in response.

"Did you seriously just hiss at me?"

Jasper's gem started to glow and rose out of Lapis' hand to hover behind the two Gems. The large Gem reformed, taking on her normal appearance and placing her hands on her hips.

"Did you see Stevonnie?" Jasper asked excitedly. "She was.. pretty amazing! Not that fusions aren't still a cheap way to win but.. man, they're learning so fast!"

"Are you okay?" Lapis ignored her swooning and and ran her body into her, shoving her face against Jasper's abdomen.

"What, I'm fine." Jasper laughed.

"Your girlfriend is crazy. She nearly wrecked the kids for making you retreat into your gem."

"What, seriously? Why?"

Lapis laughed nervously to herself.

"I was worried..."

"Oh you..." Jasper sighed and hoisted Lapis up into her arms. "I'm not a fragile little cinnamon bun, okay? Ah..."

Lapis gasped as Jasper's face flushed, and her eyes squinted together in a bout of pain. Lapis reached up and caressed Jasper's gem, feeling a little shock when her finger connected with it. She fixed her eyes on the orange and yellow gem, as Jasper carried her down to the warp pad. Peridot followed, not wanting to be left behind.

They ended up entering the house while Pearl was shouting incoherent words at Connie. As they drew closer, she realized she was telling Connie she needed to train harder if she wanted to help protect the planet.

"Pearl, we're all in this together, and I don't want Connie sacrificing herself for me! If she does that, who's going to be my jam bud?" Steven tried to explain, but Pearl didn't seem like she really cared, she was too busy screaming at them about sacrifice and death and...

"Why won't you just let me do this for you Rose!?"

Dead silence. All six other gems in the house stared at Pearl, who blushed and wiped the tears from the edge's of her eyes.

"I mean... why won't you let her.. do this for you.. I'm sorry.." Pearl turned and strode away, going into her temple room and shutting the rest of them out.

"We'll talk to her later." Steven said to Connie.

Lapis slid down out of Jasper's arms, and walked right up to the two children.

"Steven, I'm sorry for being angry with you two. I'm a little stressed. It might be better if training with Jasper is held off until the geodes can be summoned; then I won't need to fret as much about her well being...

"Lapis, someone needs to tell you this, and I'm sorry, but you're acting crazy." Steven said.

 **JASPER**

God her gem hurt. She couldn't wish the pain she was feeling on her worse enemies; if she would have had food in her stomach, she's pretty sure she would have thrown it up with how nauseous she was feeling. Her brain felt like it was covered with a fuzzy veil, overriding all her sensory stations to feel pain; and why was she so damn hot? She pulled at her collar, but that didn't help, it was already low cut. She was pretty sure Lapis was saying something to her, but she couldn't comprehend speech, or noise in general.

Ugh, if she would have known she was going to be the one to carry... But she couldn't have known. She didn't even completely realize how this was going to feel. In a way she was happy that Lapis didn't have to feel this way...

"Jasper! Hey, are you listening?" Lapis shouted, wiggling Jasper's arm back and forth wildly to gain her attention. She had _no idea_ what she had said.

"I said, maybe you need to lie down and rest."

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

"Would you just lay off me?" She growled, baring her teeth. "Just back off!"

With that, she angrily stomped away, with Steven and Connie following close behind. You would think the growling and snarling would keep these two children at bay, but apparently not. Once on the beach, she turned to face the Crystal Gems temple, gazing at the Gem Statue. She grabbed Steven and Connie, and hoisted each one of them onto her shoulders, and easily jumped up the side of the cliff until she reached the top. She set them down on their feet, and took another fighting stance.

"I want you two to fuse, and fight me again." She said in a hoarse tone.

"What, no, we really hurt you earlier." Steven answered in shock.

"You didn't hurt me Steven, I'm a Gem, and it's going to take a lot more than that to destroy or hurt me." Pain seared through her Gem again, this time stretching out across her face making her eyes water. "Besides, fighting keeps the pain at bay! I don't want to stay focused on the pain anymore."

"Does it... Does it really hurt?" Connie asked, carefully ambling closer to the large Gem. "I mean, my mom has told me all about how human babies are born, but Gem's are obviously a lot different than that."

Jasper relaxed her stance, and sat down in the grass, motioning for the two human children to come closer. Steven sat down in front of her, and Connie continued to look at her with worry painted across her face. She watched the dark skinned girl with her yellow eyes; she realized she hadn't really spent a whole lot of time with her, since Connie seemed to be so afraid of her most of the time.

"Yes. It hurts more than being stabbed with a spiky mass of crystals that won't allow you to regenerate or retreat into your gem to heal. Not that you would know what that's like..."

"Can I touch your gem?" Connie asked out of nowhere.

"Excuse me?" She inhaled her spit and choked a little.

"You're right, it was stupid of me to ask."

"Yes."

"Yes it was stupid?"

"No, you can touch it."

"I'm so confused." Connie laughed nervously.

"Come here." Jasper held out her hand, and Connie took it, coming closer to her. Her small fragile body was shaking slightly, like she was terrified. "You don't have to be afraid of me. At least not right now." She chuckled a little.

Connie reached up and placed a hand against Jasper's gem, and her body shivered with a ghostly chill. Her touch was gentle, and Jasper closed her eyes, allowing Connie to take a closer look.

"Wow, cool." The human girl said.

Jasper's gem suddenly started to glow, and she was knocked backwards by the pain, shocking both Steven and Connie who could only stare at her. Her fists gripped the grass next to her, why did this have to hurt so much? She bit back the urge to scream, which was extremely hard since it felt like her gem was going to explode off her face. A small white ball of light left her gem, and a geode appeared, falling right into Connie's waiting hands.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. What do I do, go get Lapis, that's what I'll do! Ah! Lapis!" Steven panicked, running down the hill so fast, he tripped and rolled the rest of the way down. Jasper gripped her forehead tightly, too much in pain to sit back up again.

"It's such a pretty blue color!" Connie held the geode in front of her face and she allowed herself to smile a little. Her gem pulsed again, this time pain shot down across her face and into her neck; she clenched her teeth so as not to shout vulgar obscenities at Connie, who was nice enough to sit there and catch the next geode that was summoned out of her gem.

"Jasper!" Lapis landed in the grass next to Jasper, carrying Steven. She put him down and knelt down next to her head. "Two! There's two of them! Awe, they're both a pretty blue!"

Both blue. That meant that they were both going to be Lapis' gemlings. Why did that make her suddenly feel incredibly sad? She didn't even want gemlings, did she?

"Are you crying? What's wrong?" Lapis exclaimed, wiping away the tears that were sliding out of her eyes. She couldn't control the wave of emotion that washed over her. She laid there, eyes closed tightly, waiting and hoping, and praying... but nothing happened.

"Jasper." Connie touched her gem again, and she opened her eyes to look at the human girl. How pathetic she must look, acting like a big baby in front of her.

Then, 20 minutes after the two blue geodes forced their way into existence from her gem, it started to glow again, and she embraced the pain. One right after the other, two large orange geodes came from her gem, and landed in Connie's lap. Her crying turned to an estranged laughter, and she pushed herself back up into a sitting position to hug Lapis. She felt normal again.

"We are _never_ doing this again, Lapis." She cried. Connie held the geodes out to her, and she took them into her lap, admiring how shiny and colorful they were. Lapis leaned against her arm and hooked her arm around hers, and stroked each one of the geodes individually.

"You were crying because you thought there weren't going to be any of your gemlings, weren't you." Lapis said knowingly, stroking her arm lightly. "You're so... cute sometimes."

All she chose to do at that moment was smile and look up at the stars. She swore she saw stars shooting above her head blazing in orange and blue.

 **I think maybe if I wasn't so tired I would have edited this more, but I really wanted to post it and now I'm going to crawl into bed and dream about jaspercubs and lapispups.**

 **-Edited: fixed typos and added a little more details here and there.**


	4. Chapter 4

**PERIDOT**

Peridot had found that, in the past few months she had been more or less satisfied; or happy. If you could call watching your ex-love of your life flitting around romantically with someone who's become your best friend, being happy. She didn't have her own room in the temple to lock herself away in like everyone else, so she basically commandeered the downstairs half of the house as 'her space.' This is where she spent most of her time, playing video games, tinkering with her dead robonoids, or browsing the vast ocean of the internet.

"Hey, Peridork."

Peridot looked up from her tablet and made eye contact with Jasper, who apparently had just come from her temple room, holding all four of her geodes in the crook of her arm.

"Don't call me that."

"Pffft, whatever. I'll call you whatever I want." The larger Gem plopped down on the cushion next to her and leaned back; Peridot had to note that Jasper actually looked really tired.

 _Well that's what you get for falling into the sleeping habit._ She thought to herself.

"So, Lapis said that these things should be hatching soon, and when they do, all they're going to want to do is sleep, eat, sleep, eat, eat, eat... So Lapis and I need to go collect stuff for them to consume so they get nice and strong." Jasper explained, subconsciously rubbing her hand against the orange colored geodes.

"You know how terrible it's going to be, having two little jaspercubs running around right? I mean, you were bad enough, and now there's going to be _three_ of you! You two didn't think this through."

"What, you jealous?" Jasper asked nonchalantly.

"Um, no." _Maybe._

"Well anyway, can you watch these for us while we're gone?"

Peridot dropped the tablet onto her lap and gave Jasper the darkest glare she could muster. She was _not_ their personal babysitter, and she really didn't want to do her any favors.

"Come on, they're just rocks. They're not going to do anything but sit next to you on the couch. Surely a tech-head like you can handle that."

"Did someone say they need a geode-sitter?" The Steven asked, coming into the house from outside. "I'll do it! Me and the babies will have so much fun!"

Jasper automatically tightened her grip around the geodes when Steven showed up, and Peridot was thinking this behavior to be _very_ curious.

"Yeah Jasper, the Steven can handle it. You don't need me for this." She smiled, hoping to get back to pwning noobs on 'Call of Duty.'

"Steven, yesterday I caught you trying to juggle them... If Lapis wouldn't have caught them..." Jasper shuddered at the thought.

"Awe come on, I can handle it! We'll just hang out on the beach and make sand castles!" The Steven pleaded, his eyes giving Jasper his puppy dog stare.

"I'll let you do it if Peridot agrees to help you."

Peridot looked from the Steven, to Jasper, then back to the Steven again.

"Ugh, Fine." She whined.

"Hurray!"The Steven shouted, and Peridot massaged her temples; she could feel a headache coming on.

Jasper handed the geodes to the Steven, and he grabbed Peridot's sleeve and drug her out onto the beach with him. He made her sit in the sand, while he sat the geodes down in front of her. She noticed ripples growing in the water behind the small human boy, and watched as Lapis walked up out of the ocean. She shook the water from her body, and strode over to them.

"Oh, there's my little geodie-wodies." She cooed, making baby sounds and kneeling down to rub her face on the egg shaped rocks. Peridot gagged; this gesture was just too sweet and... too much for her.

"What were you doing in the ocean, Lapis?" The Steven asked the blue Gem as he dug holes in the dirt.

"My lil' lapispups and jaspercubs are going to be so precious aren't they? Aren't they?" Lapis said to the geodes, completely ignoring the Steven.

Peridot rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers in front of Lapis' face. Lapis responded by chomping on her finger.

"Hey!" She grabbed her finger from Lapis' mouth and put it back where it belonged, next to her other fingers. Lapis stuck her tongue out at her, then kissed each one of the geodes before standing up and dusting off her skirt.

"I was looking for material for the babies to eat, but I guess all Earth's ocean has to offer is... salty water and fish and stuff. Ew."

"Are you leaving now?" The Steven asked, stopping to look up at her.

"Yes, take care of mama's little..."

"Yuck, would you just go already! The sooner you do, the sooner you can be back to take these rocks back to your room!" Peridot grimaced. "Your gooeyness is gonna make me barf up the contents of my stomach that don't exist."

"Alright! Geez..." Lapis turned quickly, her skirt twirling wildly, and went to join Jasper in the house so they could warp away.

The next few hours were spent letting the Steven dig a giant hole in the sand, making Peridot stand in it, and letting him fill the hole in; effectively burying her neck deep in the gritty tiny rocks on the beach. He seemed to be satisfied when her whole body was covered, being sure to stop when only her head was sticking out of the sand. She just gritted her teeth and put her brain on autopilot; basically shutting down all her thoughts so she wouldn't have to think about how ridiculous this whole situation was.

"Hey, Steven!"

Peridot looked to the farthest right she could, seeing a strange yellow-haired human walking towards them, holding up his phone and snapping pictures of her. She closed her eyes tightly, the flash still hurt her eyes when it was right in her face.

"Hey Ronaldo! What are _you_ up to?' The Steven said, waving towards the odd human.

"Just doing stuff for my blog of course! Hey, who's the green alien buried in the sand?" Ronaldo asked, bending down to give her a closer look.

"She's not an alien, Ronaldo. She's a Gem! She's the one who made that giant space-hand spaceship!"

"Oh what!? No way! Can I get an exclusive interview?"

The Steven looked at Peridot, smiled, and nodded at the older human. "Yeah, I don't think she's going anywhere."

"Awesome. Ma'am, can you tell me why you came to Beach City? Was it to enslave us? Was it to hollow out the Earth and take us back to your leaders, the Diamond Authority?" Ronaldo asked, his gaze was so intense, it was making Peridot feel uncomfortable.

This human wanted to know why she came to this miserable planet? Also, how did he know about the Diamond Authority? Why would the Steven share such sensitive information with some Clod who _obviously_ knew nothing about what was really going on with his world. Or what had _happened_ to his world. History was everything, and this human was an _idiot_. Wait, that's right... she had focused so much on wanting to _start_ the kindergarten that one time... She completely forgot about the _cluster..._

"No." She said simply, blowing at the sand in front of her.

Ronaldo frowned, and happened to notice the geodes lying in the sand. "Oh, what are these?" He asked, picking up one of the blue geodes, and one of the orange ones.

"What, those? Those contain little gemling babies!"

"So this could confirm your pregnancy, Steven? Congratulations! I have to get this on my blog!" Ronaldo talked into his phone; Peridot was assuming he was logging his information so he could use it later.

Peridot pulled herself up out of the sand and looked up towards the house longingly. All she wanted was to hang out alone and do her own thing. All the group activity she's been into has been a bit much, she didn't have anytime to herself today, and it was draining.

"Peridot." The Steven's voice brought her back to reality, and she looked down at him with a frown on her face.

"What are gemlings like?"

"Gemlings are horrible little replicas of their parental units that eat, sleep, destroy stuff, bite you; and did I mention they destroy stuff? I'd start hiding all your toys now if I were you." She said, grinning devilishly at the naivety upon the Steven's face.

"Wha...!? Oh no, not my stuff! Sorry Ronaldo, I gotta go!" Steven yelled before running off into the house. After Ronaldo disappeared, Peridot started to laugh; softly at first, but soon she was full out roaring at the stupidity of the Steven.

That's when she looked down, and saw that two of the geodes were _missing._

 _Holy fucking diamonds I'm fucked._ She thought about Jasper beating her face in, and Lapis using her hydrokinesis to imprison her in the bottom of the ocean. She picked the remaining orange and blue geodes up and phased herself a little carrier to stick them in. _Like those things humans carry their babies in.. kinda..._ Where the heck could they have gone, they were literally motionless hunks of rock with absolutely no sentience whatsoever.

 _ **Ronaldo.**_ That annoying human with the weird curly yellow hair, and all the prying questions. He must have Gem-napped them, wanting to crack them open and dissect them, maybe he was going to feed them to his nasty human comrades or... She shook the thoughts from her head, and started making her way towards the City. She'd never been there by herself before, and she didn't want to worry the Steven too much right now; she had finally gotten him out of her hair.

"Hey there!" A stout, blonde-haired female human waved at her, and she approached her cautiously. "Hi, you must be one of Steven's... friends. My name is Sadie, are you lost?"

Peridot studied this human, remembering Jasper talking about her before; and saying how genuinely nice this human could be. She came to the conclusion that she wasn't a threat to her. She pulled the geodes from her pouch and held them for her to see.

"Yes, my name is Peridot. I'm looking for a human that stole two geodes from me, and they look just like these."

"Oh, those look like the rocks Ronaldo brought by earlier. He was asking Lars if he had a hammer and chisel to borrow so he could crack them open and see the treasures inside them." Sadie explained.

Peridot screeched loudly.

"No! He can't force them open, they'll hatch when they're ready! If he forces them the gemlings inside could die! Give me the location of this _evil_ human immediately so I can dispose of him and retrieve the geodes!" She was a little surprised at how shaky her own voice was.

"I'm not sure what you mean, but it sounds like they're really important. They're like, eggs then? With little babies inside? Whose babies?" Sadie asked, her eyes fixated on the big orange geode Peridot was holding.

"Lapis and Jasper's..."

"Jasper? Oh my God, follow me!" Sadie grabbed Peridot's arm and pulled her back towards the temple, but instead of following the beach, they went up the large hill towards what she knew as the lighthouse. Sadie knocked politely on the door.

"Go away! I'm live-streaming for my blog! You can check it out on KBCW!" Ronaldo called through the other side of the door.

"The _fuck_ you are!" Peridot kicked the door in, causing Sadie to squeak a little in terror. Ronaldo was sitting at a table with a hammer in his hand, positioned over a metal chisel. He swung his arm back like he was going to slam it down onto the geode.

Peridot did the first thing she could think of; she propelled her fingers at the human, jabbing him in the side of the head and making him stumble out of his chair.

"Ah! What are you doing?" Ronaldo yelled, rubbing the side of his head.

"What are _you_ doing!? Taking something that's not yours!" Peridot stuffed the orange and blue geode into her pouch with the others, and glared at the teenager. "Do you have any idea how sensitive these are? Ugh, you humans are the biggest clods I have ever seen. You have no respect! No common sense. We told you these contained magical life, and did you even stop to think maybe splitting them open wouldn't be a good thing! If I could I'd..."

Sadie touched her arm and she was startled, stopping her rant and looking at her.

"Let's just go, Peridot. You got them back, so no harm no fowl, right?"

Peridot snatched her fingers up and stomped away. Sadie followed her down to the beach where she sat down in the sand and laid the geodes out neatly. She inspected each one, and was almost relieved, until she saw the Lapis Lazuli geode with a giant crack in it. It was more like the whole circumference of the geode was cracked like it was waiting to be opened. She felt her stomach twisting itself into knots; her heart stopping completely in her chest.

"No..."

"I can't believe he actually was going to do that... Oh, Peridot, is it okay?" Sadie asked, genuine concern could be heard in her voice.

She didn't know. She didn't want to know. She was afraid she was going to open that geode and see a mangled, horridly deformed and under-cooked... monster, and it would be all her fault. She was a little shocked at how emotional she suddenly felt, as water started to trickle out of her eyes, and her hands started to tremble uncontrollably. She carefully opened the ocean blue geode.

Curled up inside was a little lapispup, who was still, with it's eyes closed. She carefully stroked it's cheek with a finger, gaining no response. She choked up, and started to bawl loudly. She shape-shifted her hands to be like regular hands, so she could pick the lil' pup up and hold it. She didn't even care about herself right now; she didn't even think about the potential pain she was going to be in when Lapis and Jasper saw what she couldn't prevent. She couldn't even manage to protect four motionless rocks... She was terrible...

The other geodes all started to glow and crack; they were all hatching now, and their parental units weren't even going to be here to see them. Peridot held the lapispup close to her chest, and continued to cry feverishly.

The two jaspercubs were the first to hatch, tumbling out of their geodes, their hair short and fluffy like little fluff-balls.

"Oh, they're adorable!" Sadie said happily, picking one of the jaspercubs up gently. "Awe, you look just like your mama! I wonder if your sister does. Where's your sister?"

Peridot looked down to see the other jaspercub sitting by her feet, eyes fixated on her cupped hands. She couldn't tell if the cub knew what was in her hands, or if it was just still adjusting to its surroundings.

"Mmmr..." Was the sound the little cub made, grabbing onto Peridot's boot and pulling itself into a standing position. It reached it's little hand out towards Peridot's hands. She just watched it carefully, trying to understand what it wanted.

Even though these jaspercubs were newly hatched, and didn't have a ton of energy to burn, this one was very intrigued by what Peridot was cupping in her hands, the lifeless lapispup in contained between them. She cautiously brought her hands down and opened them in front of the curious cub.

The cub placed her hand against the little lapispup's hand, and made a little 'mmr' sound. The pup didn't move, and this seemed to upset the cub. It climbed up onto Peridot's arm and rubbed it's cheek against the lapispup's cheek. Peridot sobbed at this display; she didn't know how to tell the cub that this one was dead, and it wasn't going to come back. The cub seemed determined nonetheless, snuggling next to the lapispup and wrapping its little arms around it tightly.

"You... you stupid jasperling... That lapispup is d-dead... and she's not c-coming back! Why.." She cried, almost angry that the jaspercub wouldn't understand her. "Why are y-you so stubborn! S-she..."

Then, Peridot noticed the little lapispup's eyes open the tiniest bit, making her cry even harder. It was so weak, so tiny, and her heart was melting. She was acting like such a sap, and she felt like such a loser. The little lapispup sighed softly, before closing its eyes again; and she became beside herself with depression. The jaspercub squeezed the little lapispup even tighter, and their little gems started to glow.

It was like watching a fusion, but different. The tear-shaped Gem _melded_ with the orange one, creating one green colored gem that became the new gemling's nose. It's chubby body formed, with fluffy short white hair sprouting from its head. It had green skin, sharp little teeth, and it was about the size of a human baby; twice the size of the jaspercub, and when the gemling was done, it dropped into her lap heavily. Two minty green eyes looked up at her, while two chubby little hands reached for her face. She bent down and let the gemling touch her face, now crying tears of joy maybe. The gemlings feet pushed against her stomach. The jaspercub had saved the lapispup by melding with it, becoming what she was going to call a malakitten. Or a baby malachite gemling.

The events that just happened before her very eyes was absolutely beautiful, and it was breaking the ice enveloping Peridot's heart. She hadn't even noticed that the other lapispup had hatched, but Sadie had them both snuggling and sleeping in her lap.

"I better get going, it's getting late." Sadie said, wiping the tears from her own eyes before placing the gemlings gently on the ground. She walked off back towards Beach City.

The malakitten crawled out of Peridot's lap and curled up around her siblings, yawning, and falling asleep. Peridot wiped the tears from her eyes, finally thinking she was done crying. The ground suddenly shook behind her, and she jumped up; she was prepared to fight to the death over the gemlings safety. She was just so jumpy now.

Fusion Malachite had landed behind her, dropping two large geodes full of crystals onto the ground. Probably from Mask Island, where they were generally found. The large fusion wiped her brow, and strode towards Peridot. She gulped.

"Awe, look at you, spending time with... Oh wow, they hatched. Awe, I missed it." Malachite whined, kneeling next to the sleeping gemlings that were like tiny little puppies to her.

"I-I'm so sorry." Peridot sniffled, trying her hardest not to continue to cry.

"Peridot, what's wrong? Oh, I see two of them melded into a Malachite gemling..." Malachite's voice started to split a little. "What happened!? Why are they melded?" _It was Lapis' voice._

Peridot dropped down to her knees and stared at her shaking hands. She explained exactly what had happened to the fusion in front of her, who could destroy her gem in mere seconds if she wanted to. Malachite listened intently, never defusing, never talking, and never interrupting her narrative. The fusion Gem gave her a stern look, before striking out and grabbing her arm. She prepared herself for the worst.

"Come here you dork." Malachite held her against her chest in an awkward (for her) embrace. She picked up her gemlings and held them too.

"What, you're not mad at me?"

"You did what you could Peridot, sometimes these things happen... And really, that lapispup lives on inside our little malakitten."

She really wasn't mad... She looked up and met the fusion's gaze, noticing how much more perfect their fusion was becoming. When the fusion spoke, sometimes she couldn't even tell who was speaking anymore and it was... weird.

"I figured you would hate me." She said softly.

Malachite chuckled, making Peridot blush deeply, and feel stupid.

"We could never hate you, we love you Peridot!"

Malachite squeezed Peridot so tight, she thought she was going to poof.

"Okay, put me down now." She said quickly.

Malachite obliged, setting her down on her feet. The fusion glowed white, carefully defusing back into Jasper and Lapis. She was almost sad to see their fusion dissipate.

"Oh, that must have been so terrible for you to go through, Peridot! Let's kill Ronaldo!" Lapis summoned her wings, and took off. Jasper grabbed her ankle and pulled her back down into her arms.

"I can't believe _I'm_ the one saying this but... _No, you can't kill Ronaldo_. He's a human, and we're not supposed to harm humans. Besides, I really believe that the lapispup would not have been saved if he wouldn't have cracked that geode open. Sounds like it was very... unlucky. Well, we were actually lucky this happened. We have three beautiful little gemlings; healthy gemlings, and I'm okay with that." Jasper said, gazing into Lapis' eyes.

Bleh. Peridot threw her hands in the air and tromped back towards the house. She sat in her corner near the warp pad, and closed her eyes. The day had been long and trying, and she wanted to recharge, so to speak.

She fell asleep quickly; even though she rarely slept. Her dreams were of green oceans, swirling around an array of tones, like paint dancing on the water.

 _We love you, Peridot._

 ** _Obligatory Malaperi (malachitexperidot), because Tumblr has corrupted me. Not saying I'm gonna go heavy on the ship, but it does appeal to me._**

 ** _And that was how baby Malachite came into this world! Hurray!_**

 **Also, now that the gemlings are all hatched, I can work on some more main plot elements with gemling side stories, because I like the adventurey stuff as well.**


	5. Chapter 5

**JASPER**

Jasper didn't understand why everyone was so worried about her and Lapis having gemlings. Now that they were actually hatched, the stress level in the room seemed to go way down. Mainly the stress level Lapis was at went way down, that Gem had been so tense lately, she was slightly surprised she hadn't lost her cool completely. As long as there were crystals there for them to consume, the gemlings had stayed out of trouble. Mostly.

Today, when she walked out of the temple, she had a little trail of gemlings following after her. They seemed to be excited to leave their confined space, and venture out into the newer world of Steven's room. She had to laugh a little to herself at the sight, because they were so adorable. The little malakitten could walk on two legs already, and Jasper had been so proud. Her little jaspercub liked to walk on all fours, and it reminded her of the animal Peridot had mentioned, a dog, she thought. The little lapispup often just climbed onto the jaspercub's back, hitching a free ride around the place. Jasper was starting to think the little gemling was going to turn into a brat when she was older.

"Look Connie, you haven't seen them yet!" Steven exclaimed, pulling Connie excitedly into the living room area where Jasper had gathered her gemlings.

"Awe, can I pick them up?" Connie asked, getting a nod from Jasper before she picked the little jaspercub up and squished her face against her.

"What are their names?" Steven asked, taking the lapispup's little hands and walking her down across the floor on his feet.

"Names? Jasper, Lapis, and Malachite." Jasper answered, moving the malakitten with her foot so she could sit down on the couch.

"That's... confusing. They may be just like you, but they're their own Gems... they need awesome nicknames, or we're never going to tell you all apart." Connie pointed out, frowning at her.

Jasper shrugged. Naming things was what humans did, so she supposed she would let the humans do it. She was happy she didn't end up having seven or eight jaspercubs, she didn't want to imagine what it would have been like with all those hyper little creatures zipping around wildly. In the words of Peridot, they probably would have wrecked the place.

"Mala? No, Malachi? No, sounds too much like 'Malachite.'" Connie pondered, staring intensely at the small jaspercub in her hands.

"Baby Malachite protects her siblings, I saw her eat a spider yesterday that was frightening lil' Lapis. She needs a cool name to scare away her enemies! What about..." Steven stopped talking.

The warp stream lit up, letting out that familiar pinging sound, as Peridot appeared standing on top of it. She looked startled to see them in the livingroom, hanging out with the gemlings. Jasper eyed her curiously, wondering momentarily where she could have been. Her malakitten saw the green Gem, and mewled at her loudly. Peridot ambled towards the little green gemling, and picked her up, sitting on the couch with her in her arms. Jasper watched as her gemling laughed and pulled at Peridot's jumpsuit; she was starting to wonder if the gemling thought Peridot was her 'mother.'

"Awe Peridot, that's so cute! We were just trying to think of nicknames for the babies." Steven was awestruck, looking at Peridot with stars in his eyes. He picked up lil' Lapis who was calmly munching on a chunk of crystal.

"Ree?" The small blue gemling squeaked, dropping her crystal onto the floor. Steven picked it up and handed to her, and she smiled up at him before daintily nomming on it again.

"This is Kit. That's Zuli, and that little devil, is Jazz. Only because she is a pain in my ass. Yesterday I was trying to set up the 'Blu-ray' player, and she chewed up all the cords. I was so mad at her, I yelled at her like she was Jasper... So when I was trying to yell 'Jasper', it ended up just being 'Jazz.'" Peridot explained, a dark blush spreading across her cheeks as she spoke.

"That's so cute that you named them already! Ugh, these gem babies are killing me! I wish I could take one home with me, but my parents would probably kill me." Connie laughed.

The jaspercub wiggled out of Connie's hands and ran on all fours towards Jasper, reaching her little hands up towards her. Jasper posititoned her foot directly under Jazz and lifted her with her boot, so the gemling could crawl up her body with ease; all the way up to her chest where the gemling stood up and grabbed onto Jasper's face. She blew out a puff of air at the little cub, tussling it's hair and causing it to close its eyes and blink.

"Awe, she loves you!" Steven squealed in excitement, squishing his tiny hands against his cheeks.

Jasper still didn't know what to think about this little Gem she had created, pulling on her face and growling at her affectionately. She scooped the cub up into her palm and poked its gem, curious to see how it would react. It gave her a little glare, and grabbed onto her finger, biting her finger defensively. She chuckled to herself, finding a small delight in messing with this smaller reflection of herself. She felt a small pressure on her right arm, and looked down to see the malakitten biting her arm and giving her a _nasty_ look. Jasper scowled, lifted her arm up, taking her fusion baby up with it.

"I'm not hurting her, why are you biting me?" She groaned. Kit stopped biting her and crawled across her body over to the jaspercub in her hand, grabbing onto her and hugging her tightly.

"Well, this is fun and all but, duty calls!" Peridot leapt off the couch and stretched her arms up towards the ceiling. Kit, Zuli, and Jazz all turned their heads to stare at her. Jasper felt a hint of jealousy in her chest; the gemlings obviously liked the green Gem, probably because Peridot was there when they hatched from their geodes. Sometimes she wondered if they even liked her, sometimes she wondered if she even liked them.

"Where are you going? You _never_ do anything productive..." Jasper snapped angrily at her, letting jealousy show through in her voice.

Peridot gaped at her.

"I um... I have something I need to take care of, and it's none of your business!" Peridot snapped back, before clambering off towards the warp pad and warping away.

What was her deal?

"Steven, watch the gemlings." Jasper said, setting the two gemlings down in front of the small children before striding over to the temple door. Since Lapis was already inside, she only had to use her own gem's magic to get inside their combined room. She walked in, the door closing and disappearing after her. She desperately wanted to punch Peridot in the face, even though she was still grateful for Peridot being there for her gemlings when she wasn't.

Lapis was buried under a pile of blankets on their bed, hair tussled and her body sprawled out. She was _passed_ out. Still? Lapis had been sleeping for 14 hours already. She was really hoping that she would be able to talk to her lover about Peridot's odd behavior. She let herself fall down face first onto the bed and she groaned into the pillow. She was really pissed off now.

Since she had some time to actually think about things, she recalled Peridot's odd behavior had started the day the gemlings had hatched. Sure, maybe what she had experienced with the dying gemling had been traumatic, but that didn't explain her unexplained absences throughout the last week. Warping away in the middle of the night; coming back with the suspicious, disgusting frown on her face.

Lapis rolled over and smacked Jasper's back with the back of her hand. The physical contact must have shocked her, because she squealed and sat straight up in her bed, gasping.

"Where are the gemlings?" She asked, like she had been scared awake and couldn't seem to catch her breath.

"Chill, they're with Steven." Jasper answered, annoyed in general about everything that had happened so far that day.

"Um..."

"And Connie." She added quickly, hearing the concern in the ocean Gem's voice.

"Oh, okay. Well, she's responsible." Lapis sighed in relief. "What's up with you?"

"Nothing." She mumbled through gritted teeth.

"Don't lie to me. I can _feel_ the tension emanating from your body. I think you need to loosen up a bit." The blue gem stretched out next to her before pulling herself up onto her knees.

Lapis swung a leg over Jasper's back, taking a seat. She started to massage the base of Jasper's neck with her firm, slender fingers. Jasper exhaled deeply, relaxing her face against the pillow as the blue Gem's fingers worked their way across her broad shoulders, molding her muscles with her small hands, releasing the toxins of stress from her body. She could feel the knots in her shoulders being worked out. She didn't realize the amount of stress that had built up over the last few days.

"Are you ready to tell me yet?" Lapis asked running her hands along her arms with her flat palms and readjusting her position.

"Hn... No." Jasper responded quietly. She could feel her eyelids becoming heavy as she became more and more relaxed.

She felt Lapis scoot down so she was sitting in the small of her back. Lapis pushed up the fabric of her shirt, exposing the firm orange muscles underneath. Jasper groaned as Lapis kneaded her knuckles into her back, she was really loving this extra attention she was receiving from the ocean Gem. It was soothing; just what she needed.

"Jasper, tell me." Lapis practically sang, pushing her weight into the massage she was giving.

"I'm... envious." She breathed, biting into the pillow to stifle a grunt of pain when Lapis dug her fingers to deeply into a knot in her back.

"Like, jealous? Jealous of what?"

She didn't know why expressing herself always had to be such a chore all the time. Other than the fact that she had a soft pillow clenched between her teeth and couldn't really speak at the moment. So she pushed her body up with her palms, and Lapis slid off of her onto the bed. She pulled her shirt down and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I'm jealous that the gemlings like Peridot so much. We should have been here when they hatched, but instead we were off gallivanting around on Mask Island." She barked, startling the blue Gem.

"Gallivanting... Jasper, that was all you! I tried to get us to come back several times, and you kept insisting that we stay. Besides, it was so nice just spending time there. That island brings back a very good memory for me, because you know it was the first place we kissed, right?"

"I just... _I just wish they liked me more..."_ She finally admitted to the blue Gem, running her large hands through her hair nervously.

"Spend time with them and they _will_ like you more." Lapis chuckled softly, touching her arm lightly, making her skin tickle with goosebumps. She met her gaze and they shared a tender moment she hadn't had for a while.

Their temple door pinged just then, and it opened with Garnet, Steven, and Connie entering. Garnet was holding the three gemlings in her hands, looking as stoic as ever; the three babies curled up together snoozing away.

"Connie started singing to them, and they all fell asleep." Steven explained quietly. He put his hands behind his back and looked off to the side as if he were anxious about something.

"And?" Garnet said, handing the gemlings off to Lapis, who laid them out on their bed, pushing the blankets around them to make a little nest. Jasper prepared for the worst, this thing Steven was doing was usually a good prompt of knowing that he was about to apologize for doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing.

"I made Zuli cry!" Steven admitted, his eyes getting watery. Jasper snorted; this kid could be so strange sometimes.

Garnet was about to leave the room, when she suddenly stopped, and stood frozen in her stance like a statue. Steven patted her leg, but she didn't respond to him.

"Garnet? What's wrong?"

Jasper stood up and strode over to the fusion Gem, and waved her hand in front of her eyes. She gained no response. She removed her signature shades and gasped, seeing Garnet's third-eye darting in several different directions quickly, while her other two eyes were frozen in one direction.

"Hey! What's wrong with you?" Jasper yelled, causing Steven to take a step back away from them. She was frustrated because she didn't know what was happening, and it bothered her that Garnet wasn't responding to her. She pulled her fist back and aimed to punch the fusion right into her smug face.

"Jasper, no!" Steven cried.

Her fist hit right into the middle of Garnet's gauntlet, the fusion Gem having snapped out of her trance in time to block her attack.

"Where is Peridot." Garnet demanded, phasing away her gauntlets and dropping her arms to her sides. She kept all three of her eyes focused onto Jasper's.

"Peridot? I have no idea. She doesn't tell us anything." She returned, taking a step back.

"Something just doesn't feel right..." Garnet summoned another pair of shades, and marched out of Jasper and Lapis' room. Jasper and Steven ran after her, leaving Lapis behind with the gemlings.

"Steven! You're just in time to help me fold your laundry!" Pearl clapped her hands together, smiling down at the small hybrid boy.

"Pearl, we don't have time for that. I sense something strange going on at the kindergarten, and I think we should check it out." Garnet stood on the warp pad, and Steven joined her. Pearl looked at the pile of t-shirts on the floor and sighed, before also joining Garnet on the warp pad. Amethyst kicked a pile of shirts that were already folded, knocking them over.

"Really Amethyst, I just folded those!" Pearl chastised her, putting her hands on her hips in annoyance.

Jasper stood behind the four of them, and they entered the warp stream. Steven had his hands on his hips, with a deep look of determination on his face. This made Jasper smile internally, the kid had come a long way since she'd first started hanging out with them. What did she expect, he _was_ the half-Gem spawn of Rose Quartz after all.

They arrived at the Kindergarten. Pearl projected light from her gem to look around, guiding them so Steven could see better in the dark. The last time Jasper was here, Peridot was going to restart Gem Production on Earth, and... Why would Peridot be here; if Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl found her here, something bad was bound to happen.

Jasper followed the other Gems, an eerie darkness hung about this place, with these old archaic injectors standing about as ghostly reminders of what Homeworld had done here thousands of years ago. These old machines would plant new gems into the ground, where they would incubate, sucking all the life from the earth in order to mass produce gemlings to be recruited for militant purposes.

"Hey Jasper, can you use your super strength to pick up this injector? It'd be so cool!" Steven asked her excitedly, pointing at one of the beat up old machines.

"Uh, I don't think that would be a very good idea, Steven. These things are dangerous." She responded, as her and Steven unknowingly split off from the rest of the group.

Jasper was on high-alert as Steven and her continued searching for something unusual in this place they all considered evil. She honestly could not care less about it, one way or the other.

"Ugh, I can't believe I had totally forgotten about the experi..."

Jasper turned on her heel to see Peridot rising from an elevator in the ground, talking to herself.

"Peridot." she called, startling the green Gem.

"Jasper? What are you doing here?" She looked around nervously, seeing Steven only a few paces away from her. He was looking at her curiously.

"What am _I_ doing here? What are _you_ doing here, creeping around?" She retorted.

"Jasper, some of the fusion experiments have emerged early."

"Fusion... _experiments?_ "

"That's right... You didn't know the specifics of the mission, you were just told to escort me... Are the... Are the others here?" She asked, turning her frown into an even deeper one, closing her eyes for a lengthened period of time.

"Of course they are Peridot. If you don't want them to think you're up to something, you better tell me what's going on right now, or I won't be able to..."

"Peridot!?" Garnet called out distantly.

"Jasper, I gotta go..."

"What are you doing here, of all places?" Pearl demanded, not hesitating to pull her spear from her gem and point it at Peridot. "I _knew_ we couldn't trust you!"

Peridot fled, and they chased after her, cornering her against a steep cliff filled with many gem shaped holes in it. Jasper followed, feeling extremely confused at what exactly was going on. Peridot had mentioned _fusion_ experiments, why did that fill her mind with a darkened sense of foreboding? She looked up and saw Peridot scaling the wall effortlessly, running straight up the side of the cliff.

"Hey, I can't do that..." Steven whined. "Peridot! We just want to talk to you!"

Pearl hurled her spear straight up towards Peridot, who ducked right before the spear almost sliced her head off.

"Ha! Missed!"

Jasper saw Pearl's spear hit an injector above Peridot; the spear dissipating on contact. Peridot seemed to notice this as well, because she shrieked and turned back around, fleeing back towards the ground. Jasper winced as the injector fell onto her, sending both of them hurtling into the ground.

"Do you think she's hurt!?" The small human boy tried to walk towards the rubble, but Pearl held him back away from it.

Jasper didn't understand why Peridot was doing this. It was only going to make her look worse in their eyes, and if she tried to explain now, there's no way they were going to listen to her lightly. The green Gem was quickly burning her bridges, so to speak.

Peridot emerged from the rubble and attempted to flee again, but she was caught by Amethyst's whip, preventing her from moving for the time being. Peridot glared at the purple Gem, and sent a bolt of electricity down the whip from her finger, causing it to flail about wildly. Amethyst dropped the whip, and Peridot ran towards Jasper.

"Peridot, would you just stop and talk to us? I can't stop all three of them from hurting you. If you keep acting like you're guilty of something, of course they're going to try and capture you!" Jasper yelled, reaching out to grab Peridot. Peridot stopped out of her reach though, her fingers growing larger into helicopter blades, lifting her up into the air.

"I have to lay low, I'll come back when things blow over around here." Peridot yelled before flying off into the distance. Jasper groaned at the green Gem's insolent immaturity; she almost felt embarrassed about how she had acted. Pearl and Amethyst ran after her, but Garnet and Steven stayed put where they were.

"Jasper, why is Peridot here? It couldn't be to still activate this place, could it?" Garnet asked as her and Steven walked towards the opening in the ground where Peridot had come up from Facet Five.

"I'm telling you right now, that I really have no clue why that little green nerd was here..."

"Let's go down there and find out then."

Jasper did _not_ have a good feeling about this.

 **Chapter Six Will be up sometime later today. :3**


	6. Chapter 6

**JASPER**

Jasper felt uneasy, the hairs on the back of her neck were standing straight up, and she had goosebumps on her arms. Her body was on high alert, while her heart was racing anxiously against her chest. She couldn't figure out why Yellow Diamond never told her about the experiments they were conducting in this place. She had a near perfect recollection of the war, but after that she had a period of training and recooperating that took up most of her time. Parts about the 'cluster' were just dark black patches of nothing in the wide sea of her conscience.

She followed Garnet and Steven up onto the old control room machinery, recognizing the place immediately upon setting her sights on it. There was something different about this place this time though; lying on the floor against the wall were a couple columns of what appeared to be dirt. She felt some clumps of dust land on her head, and looked up to see several of the dirt columns hanging out of the ceiling, one even had a hole in it, making Jasper sweat a little.

"Is the strong part of you Ruby, and the wise part of you Sapphire?" Steven asked Garnet; this was the only part of their conversation Jasper had paid attention to.

"It's a little of both. When two Gems combine, it creates something greater than their parts. That's why I'm so great." Garnet answered him, smiling.

"So then, Malachite is made of Jasper and Lapis'..."

A dirt pillar standing up near the wall started to shake, filling the room with a dark, low rumbling.

"Is there something in there?" Steven asked, whimpering a little.

A creature fell from the ceiling just then, and Garnet picked it up and looked up at the ceiling. Jasper moved in closer, and saw what appeared to be a hand and a foot, stuck together. Both her and Steven shrieked a little, the hand-foot wiggled in Garnet's hand, reaching for the small hybrid boy's face. Several more dismembered body parts fell, one even landing on Jasper's head. She batted it away quickly, and backed up into the wall. She was silently trying not to freak out, as the creature Garnet was holding grabbed onto Steven's face; he cried out and Garnet punched it, causing it to poof into a weird jagged gem, that she held between her thumb and index finger.

"W-What is it?" Steven asked, looking at Garnet with genuine concern. "It looks like two gem-shards stuck together."

Garnet grunted nervously, tossing the gem-shard on the ground near Jasper's feet. She reached down and picked it up; it really was two shards stuck together, the colors were completely off, and where they met in the middle was like they grew into each other forcibly. The magic emanating from it was... _wrong_... She dropped the shard and clutched her head, staring at the other stuck together body parts lying on the ground, wiggling around mindlessly.

"Is that what these are? Gems stuck together?"

The thought was repulsive; so repulsive even Garnet gasped at the idea. The dirt pillar behind them broke, and Steven and Garnet turned to face it. The pillar exploded, sending out a beam of light and a weird multicolored gem. As it tried to form a body, several hands reached out before taking the shape of four screaming humanoid Gem bodies stuck together. They were trying to escape from one another, reaching out desperately, before their form glitched, and started transforming into something different.

It took on the shape of a giant hand, with it's four fingers taking the form of smaller hands; its thumb the shape of a foot. Each body part was a different color, streaking back down its arm; where several feet had formed. The creature shrieked, crawling towards Garnet and Steven.

Jasper couldn't move. She was in so much shock at the creature she was looking at before her. She was so revolted by what they had uncovered here; she felt like vomiting as her stomach twisted itself into knots inside of her. The worst part about seeing these... _abominations_ was finding out that Peridot had known about them, and hadn't bothered to mention it at all. Why wouldn't she be told about it? Why would Yellow Diamond keep this from her?

Garnet breathed heavily, shaking her head, refusing to believe what she's seeing as the cluster monster inched closer to her.

"Garnet..." Steven said, backing away slightly. "Uh, Garnet what do we do?" He cried out as a smaller gem cluster grabbed onto him.

The large Cluster grabbed onto Garnet's body and face with it's multiple hands, pulling on her, the palm of its hands opening up to reveal four different colored eyes that were staring at her, _pleading_ with her; almost like it was begging her to do something about its awful existence. Garnet must have been in terrible shock too, because she didn't even resist it, let alone respond to the hybrid boy she was supposed to protect. Steven quickly summoned his shield, protecting himself from an arm that tried to hit him.

One of the Cluster's hands knocked the glasses right off of Garnet's face, and Jasper could see how terrified the fusion Gem really was. Her eyes were brimming with tears, and she felt herself start to well up with the same emotion.

"These were Crystal Gems, shattered into pieces. They were buried together. They were forced together... They were forced to fuse! This is wrong! Uh... Uh... I'm sorry..."

Jasper watched in horror as Garnet's stoic resolve faltered, and she started to unfuse in the Cluster monster's grasp. The large orange Gem fell back against the wall, sliding down against it, pulling her knees to her chest as her own resolve started to waver.

She _knew_ Homeworld looked down on fusion, it was drilled into her head that resorting to fusion was weak and despicable; besides some other experiences she had had with fusion, she had believed it as well. Lapis had changed that, for the most part; but seeing this horrendous Cluster in front of her made her heart heavy, made her want to never fuse again. She _never_ would have thought they would do something like this. Jasper was a soldier; she respected Gems who fought alongside their leaders during the war, she had buried some of her own comrades years ago, knowing they'd find peace here. Were they also fused somewhere, forcibly stuck together, like who they had been, hadn't even mattered? What Homeworld had done, force fusing these remnants of Garnet's friends and comrades, was _grotesque._ _This was_ _ **sick**_.

"Garnet! You're coming undone! Garnet! Garnet!" Steven hollered, trying to stop Garnet from unfusing while still protecting himself from the smaller hands that were trying to get him. "Garnet, please! What's the matter?!" She unfused even further. "This isn't like you!"

Upon hearing that last statement, Garnet regained control of herself and started to fuse back together. She grabbed onto each side of the Cluster's gem, and pushed powerfully against it, until the monster poofed, it's aggregated gem falling into her hands as she sadly bubbled it away.

"We did it!" Steven cheered halfheartedly.

Garnet was silent. Jasper looked up at her from under her cream-colored bangs.

"Garnet?"

"So _this_ is what Homeworld thinks of fusion!" Jasper recognized Ruby's voice speaking through Garnet, the fusion Gem had lost her control in the moment.

"We couldn't have known they would do this..." Sapphire's voice responded.

" _This_ is where they've been... All the ones we couldn't find. They've been here the whole time!"

"Rose couldn't have known..."

"This is their punishment to us, for the Rebellion!"

"It's not our fault!"

"No." Garnet turned and made eye contact with Jasper, her eyes glowing with anger. "It's your fault!"

Garnet summoned her gauntlets and charged at Jasper. The larger Gem tumbled out of the way, just as Garnet smashed her fist into the wall where she had been moments before. She jumped to her feet defensively, summoning her Crash Helmet just in time to use it to deflect more of Garnet's fast, enraged punches. The fusion Gem forced her backwards, up the dirt slope and out into the open.

"Garnet! What are you doing!?" Steven yelled, rushing up the slope after them.

"Hey, we're back." Amethyst said, throwing a struggling Peridot onto the ground, bound by her crystalline whip.

"What's going on, why are you two fighting?" Pearl asked, the worry thick in her voice.

"Homeworld forced the shards of Crystal Gems to fuse, against their will! Fusion is a choice, not magic to be trifled with! I can't forgive you for what you've done!" Garnet roared, grabbing Jasper's arm and throwing her into the ground behind her.

"Wait, those were... Crystal Gem shards?" Peridot asked in disbelief.

Jasper was still jarred about the fusion experiments herself. Of course they were going to punish the Crystal Gems for rebelling, and she was starting to see why the Commander had ordered it to be done in this way. Fusions had helped win the war for Rose Quartz and her army. Sure, they had fusions too, but their side was more stable, more _complete._ What if they had force fused those Gems not only as punishment, but to try and create perfect Gem fusions for the army, so they could be _mass-produced_. What if they could make fusion Gems with the Kindergarten technology?

Jasper was so lost in her thoughts she didn't even defend her face when Garnet landed a punch directly into her jaw. She had moved to take the impact there; she swore the fusion had aimed for her gem... She flew backwards, her back sliding right into the sharp drill of an injector that had been laying on its side on the ground. She grunted loudly, refusing to allow herself to poof away, unable to defend herself. Her body was definitely paralyzed though, the injector had messed up her spine pretty bad.

Garnet pulled off her Crash Helmet, and tossed it to the side, where it dissipated after hitting the ground.

"Garnet, stop!"

"Steven! I have to do this. You saw what she did!"

"What!? Jasper didn't do anything wrong!" He countered, clenching his small fists against his sides.

"I'm sorry Steven." The fusion Gem apologized, summoning a pair of shades and looking towards the ground.

Jasper closed her eyes, waiting for Garnet to smash her Gem. She opened them briefly, and surprisingly saw Lapis standing there, holding off Garnet with all the strength she could muster in her tiny body. Garnet tried to grab her, but the blue Gem was too fast, ducking under her easily and shoving her shoulder against the fusion's waist, pushing her backwards.

"L-Lapis? Why are you here?" Steven asked, unsure whether to be worried or relieved at the sight.

Jasper herself breathed a sigh of relief. She looked over towards where Garnet had landed, seeing the fusion pick herself up, cracking her neck from side to side.

"Amethyst! Fuse with me!"

"B-But Garnet!"

"Now!"

 **LAPIS**

"I'm here checking up on you guys, and I was bored being home all by myself. What the _hell_ is going on?" She screamed, as Garnet and Amethyst started their fusion dance. She saw Peridot laying on the ground next to Pearl, who seemed to be watching the scene playing out before her with a very conflicted look on her face.

Lapis turned and grasped Jasper's face between her hands, eyes widening as she saw the light from her golden eyes fading away. She didn't know what was going on, but she was going to find out soon enough. If they were fusing to fight, then she would have to fuse too. She leaned in towards the larger Gem.

"No!" Jasper said, her voice quaking with fear.

"Jasper it's okay, I'm here." Lapis said soothingly, holding Jasper's face in her arms while stroking her hands against the larger Gem's head. She heard heavy, thunderous footfalls behind her, knowing they couldn't wait to fuse any longer. She moved the hair from Jasper's face tenderly, and planted a kiss against her gem. A single tear escaped those yellow eyes, before their gems lit up, and they fused into Malachite. The mint colored fusion Gem summoned her water wings, and flew out of the way of Sugilite's massive flail.

"Guys, stop fighting!" Steven cried out to no avail.

 **MALACHITE**

The immense emotion that filled her, threatened to defuse her, but Malachite kept herself pulled together with her sheer mental strength. She was faster and smaller than Sugilite now, making it very easy to dodge her slower, ogreish movements. Garnet and Amethyst fused together to form the Gem Sugilite, and she was absolutely terrifying; they were huge and relentless in their pursuit of her, and she didn't have any water around to defend herself with. She had to play this smartly, she had to...

Sugilite's flail flung into her body, sending her hurtling through the ground, sliding past Peridot and Pearl.

"Oh, this is just too much! Can't we just settle down and talk about this?" Pearl scoffed, tapping her foot against the ground angrily like she couldn't take this fight too seriously.

Sugilite laughed maniacally to herself, and stomped towards Pearl and Peridot.

"Ah, the little green Gem was the one who started all this, weren't you? Pearl, get out of the way!" Sugilite demanded, raising her foot above the green Gem's body. Malachite saw this, and dove to protect Peridot, using her body as a shield to prevent Sugilite from crushing her friend. The monstrous fusion continued to slam her foot down into Malachite's back, and she went down onto her elbows, hugging her body against the small Gem's body to prevent her from being hurt.

"I'm not strong enough Peri... I don't know what to do.." Malachite said softly, her body close to giving out. She felt warm tears streaking down her cheeks, unable to keep them from dripping onto the smaller Gem below her. "Those creatures, those _forced_ fusions, my heart hurts so much from seeing them this way. I can't... I..."

Peridot reached up and moved a tuft of hair from in front of Malachite's eyes, and just stared at her with her frown clad face. She didn't understand why, but she had the strongest urge to protect this Gem.

"Come on Malachite! Don't let Sugilite bully you! Just because... Just because she's bigger than you doesn't mean you should give up!" Steven's words were encouraging, but her body just couldn't keep up from the assault. Any higher, and Sugilite's massive foot was going to crush the Gem on her back.

 _Why are we sacrificing ourselves and our strength like this, Peridot knew about those awful fusions... She doesn't deserve our protection! **Jasper's voice screamed inside Malachite's shared conscience.**_

 _That may be so, but Peridot is our friend, I thought you wanted to protect her, don't you? **Lapis responded, sounding utterly confused at this split in their amalgam's conscience.**_

 **I want to protect her. She needs me. I** _ **need**_ **her.**

Malachite shoved Peridot across the ground, turned, and grabbed onto Sugilite's foot tightly. She pushed off with a renewed strength, sending Sugilite stumbling backwards onto her rear. Malachite picked up an injector, and swung it, the force of the impact caused the fusion to poof and separate back into Garnet and Amethyst. She dropped the archaic gem machine, and fell belly down against the ground, breathing heavily. The two Gems inside her wanted to split now, and as much as she didn't want to disappear back into the abyss, she was too tired to fight it.

 **At least she's safe now.**

 **LAPIS**

Lapis pulled her body from Jasper's and the moment she did, Jasper's body poofed. Fusing when she had already been weak had been dangerous for her; for the both of them. At least now her lover could rest, knowing the fighting was over; at least for now. Lapis on the other hand was infuriated, wanting nothing more than to kick Garnet's fusion ass.

She stomped her way over to Garnet, who was still lying on the ground, her shades snapped in half on the ground next to her.

"What the heck were you thinking? Oh wait, you weren't! Did you even take the time to notice you weren't the only one freaked out by what had happened in Facet Five? I _fused_ with Jasper, and she was completely _mortified_ by what Homeworld had done to your comrades! She didn't even want to fuse with me, because all she could think about were those.. that... monster." Lapis screamed at her, never once dropping her eye contact with the tired fusion.

"I saw the tears... In Malachite's eyes, and I knew right there she hadn't known either. I let my anger control me, I'm so sorry Lapis.."

Lapis relaxed her shoulders, and clutched Jasper's gem close to her body.

"I should have said something, and this is exactly why I didn't. I was sent here to check on the Cluster, knowing full well what the experiments were all about, mostly. I was supposed to activate the Kindergarten to achieve mass-production of fused Gems. I didn't know they were your comrades... I was told they were incomplete Gems that never grew their own conscience, and that incubating them together under high pressure would help them gain one.. I'm sorry! No Gem should have to suffer that." Peridot explained, picking herself up and wiping the dirt off of her uniform.

"There's nothing we can do about it now. Now we bubble what's left, and we go from there." Garnet's true personality had returned, but Lapis was still worried about the stability of her.

"Let's go home, Jasper."

xxx

Lapis set Jasper's Gem in front of the fireplace in Steven's room, on top of a small pillow she had taken from off Steven's bed. The other Gems had avoided her, except for Peridot who sat on the couch with her leg crossed over the other, relaxing and staring off into space. They hadn't talked at all since coming back from the Kindergarten; there seemed to be this air of awkwardness about them, and Lapis couldn't explain why.

Kit, Zuli and Jazz were all sitting around the little pillow, staring at the faceted orange Gem with curiosity in their big cute eyes. At first she thought maybe they would pick the Gem up and eat it, but they seemed to know it wasn't food, Jazz even started poking it with her hand and cried a little when nothing happened. It was so cute how they worried, knowing that something was wrong; the scene threatened to make her choke up a little, it was so sad.

The events of the day had been crazy, starting with Jasper freaking out about something so simple as thinking the gemlings didn't like her, to going to the Kindergarten to see that... monstrosity in all its true colors. She hadn't been prepared to see that when she fused with Jasper, and now she worried the larger Gem wouldn't want to fuse with her ever again. She loved it, the feeling of becoming one single entity with the Gem she adored, but those thoughts seemed farther and farther from her reach the more Jasper started to fear fusion. It was weird to her, the thought of such a powerful Gem letting something like this bother her so much.

Besides those events of the day, she discovered that after she had defused from Jasper earlier, her head had felt fuzzy, and she couldn't remember some of the exact details of what had happened while they were fused. It had never happened before, and she wondered what exactly that meant. Maybe when Garnet had had plenty of time to calm down, she would go to the fusion Gem and ask her questions about fusions; which were still very new to her. She had only ever fused with Jasper, maybe her emotional instability was too much, giving her amnesia from trying to keep them under control. She really didn't know.

She looked back at Peridot, and caught the green Gem staring at her awkwardly, looking away quickly and pouting out her bottom lip.

"Something on my face, Peri?" She sneered.

"No, forget about it."

"Okay then.. Weirdo." She turned back to see her gemlings cuddling Jasper's gem between them, her heart overflowing from the cuteness.

 _Please come back Jasper, I want you to see how much they all really love you. I hope you'll grow to love them, as I love you. I don't want you to be afraid, I just want to share this experience with you, for all of eternity. Please, come back._

She wiped away a tear from her eye, knowing Jasper would return when she was ready, but she couldn't help but feel so distressed about it. If Jasper had too much time to think alone, who knew what kind of thoughts and feelings she was struggling with by herself in there.


	7. Chapter 7

**LAPIS**

One whole week had passed, and Jasper still hadn't reformed from her gem. Lapis was so worried; and she was starting to think that her emotions were affecting the gemlings. None of them wanted to play like they usually do, and little Jazz even stopped eating today. Lapis tried crushing the crystals into a fine powder for her to lick, but she refused to open her mouth at all.

"Fine! Starve to death then!" Lapis yelled at her cub angrily, bringing her hand down against the counter, scaring little Zuli and making her cry. She was so frustrated with the jaspercub, she didn't even want to deal with her attitude today. She understood that Jasper needed time alone, but if she didn't come back soon, she was going to go crazy.

Peridot had tried helping her out where she could, but the gemlings were overstimulated and too cranky to pay her any mind. Instead, she was making a genuine effort to follow Lapis around and help her out where she could.

"Lapis, it's not Jazz's fault that Jasper hasn't come back! Why are you being so mean to her?" Steven chastised her, picking up the jaspercub and holding her against his chest. Jazz licked his fingers affectionately, and she glared back at Lapis, who responded by sticking her tongue out at her.

"Come on girl, aren't you hungry?" He asked, poking and tickling the little cub. Jazz shook her head and started to cry, reaching her little hands out towards the couch where Jasper's gem was laying.

Steven carried her over there and picked up the multi-faceted gem, and Jazz took it, cuddling it between her small limbs possessively.

"Steven I just got that away from her, and you gave it back? Now I'll never be able to... Zuli! What are you doing!?" Lapis turned to see Zuli standing on the edge of the counter, teetering close to the edge, the act threatening to send her falling off onto the floor. Lapis reached for Zuli, but she fell; luckily right into Kit's waiting arms.

"It is a danger zone in here!" Amethyst yelled out upon warping into the room with a large weapon from the strawberry fields. Garnet came out of the temple and helped her pull it into Amethyst's room. Lapis rolled her eyes; what exactly was the point of collecting all those weapons anyway?

"Lapis, you need to chill." Steven said.

He was right of course. She didn't see how she could chill when Jazz refused to eat, Zuli refused to stay safe, and Kit was a better mother than she was.

Steven picked up the gemlings and placed his palm against Lapis' chest. His gaze was soft, and she relaxed, holding back the sudden urge she had to start crying. She followed him wearily up to his loft, where he laid out a plush comforter where they all laid down against the soft fabric.

"Why do you think Jasper is taking so long to regenerate? Do you think she's okay?" Steven asked softly, gently rubbing Jazz's head with a tip of his index finger.

"I don't know... At this rate it feels like she's never going to regenerate..."

"She has to though, right? I mean, Garnet feels terrible for what she did... I hope that's not why she won't come back."

"Oh Steven, I don't know. The whole fusion experiments thing really freaked her out. Usually when we fuse, the feeling is so wonderful and warm, and I really can't explain it. You've fused though, you should know what I mean. But this time, when we fused, all I felt was terror, confusion, even hatred, and it was the worst feeling in the world. I'm really surprised we didn't split apart instantly, because the emotions she was feeling were so overwhelming. She was so unstable. I felt something deep inside me though, a warmth I hadn't felt before, keeping us together long enough to protect ourselves and to protect Peridot. It was as if Malachite herself wanted us to stay together; there are even parts I can't remember from when we were fused... It's weird..." Lapis folded her arms under her head as a pillow, and gazed at her gemlings sadly.

"You have amnesia? From fusing?" Steven mimicked her, covering himself up with a blanket. "Garnet said when you fuse you're not two people, you're not one person; but maybe Malachite is growing her own conscience?"

Was that what was happening to them? She had always felt their separate, individual presences residing within their amalgam, but this last time, as faint as it was; she had felt a third presence in the back of her mind. She was pretty sure that was where the strange urge to _protect_ had come from. It was a voice that urged them to stay fused, even taming Jasper's emotions to a manageable degree. She had loved being Malachite, but the thought of losing herself, was terrifying in a way, because she didn't want to lose her feelings and her thoughts; she shuddered thinking about it.

 _Lapis closed her eyes, the feeling of exhaustion was overwhelming. So many thoughts and worries about her gemlings passed before her eyes as her mind drifted off into sleep. She was swimming in a black, dank ocean, and she was almost too terrified to continue. She felt her body freezing up with terror as she looked down to see four glowing green orbs staring at her from below her. She swam as quickly as she could towards the surface, not daring to look back down, afraid of what was watching her; chasing her, of what threatened to drag her back down. She broke the surface just as a large hand grabbed onto her foot. She summoned her wings and fought against the giant green hand that had her, when a familiar hand grabbed hers and pulled her from the hands grip. She stared up at Steven, before looking back down to watch the hand sink back into the ocean._

" _Steven?" She squished his face with her hands and he laughed._

" _Oh hey Lapis, this is weird, I've never dreamt about you before."_

" _What?" She looked around, only seeing a sea of stars surrounding them as they floated weightlessly across space._

" _I was flying with dogcoptor, and then I saw you struggling so I helped you. But..."_

Lapis snapped awake, and looked around her. Steven was awake too, and they stared at each other. The gemlings were still sleeping peacefully, unaware of their surroundings.

"Steven did you.."

"Lapis..."

"That was real?" They both said at the same time.

"Lapis, what were you running from?" He asked, touching her hand gently from where he was on the blanket, looking at her with furrowed brows.

"I think it was Malachite."

"Eugh.."

"It was only a dream right? I mean... Why would she be reaching out to me like that..." Lapis rolled over on her side, and stared at the black TV screen in front of her. Steven was talking to her again, telling her about some dream he had had about Pearl, but she felt her eyelids become heavy again, as she fell asleep once more.

 _This time she woke up in the middle of a raging battle. Gem's were clashing all around her, and she screeched as she saw shattered pieces of gems and mangled body parts of humans cast about around her. She fled, dodging weapons and confrontation, skidding to a stop in front of a Gem she recognized as Rose Quartz. Something touched her hand, and she threatened to scream, but when she looked down it was Steven again, holding her hand tightly as they watched what happened in front of them._

 _There was a large intimidating Gem before them, with massive hair and a huge battleaxe. The Gem swung her axe down towards Rose, who held up her shield to protect herself. Before the axe could connect with her shield, a smaller, thinner Gem put herself between Rose Quartz and her aggressor, taking the brunt of the force with her sword. The force was too much for the smaller Gem and she poofed._

" _Pearl?" Steven said quietly. The scene changed around them, as they were now looking onto a flat field of death and despair, with what appeared to be devoid of life; Gem or human. Steven whimpered at the sight of blood and personified agony; he attempted to pick up what looked like gem shards, but his hand went straight through them. The ground shook beneath them, and they turned to stare up at the large form of a Gem fusion, one that was only a black silhouette with glowing green eyes._

 _The fusion Gem reached her hands towards Lapis, who took several steps back, shaking her head no. This didn't feel right to her, why was this happening? Steven had disappeared, and she was left alone to face this monster on her own. She-_

"Lapis wake up!" Steven was shaking her. So that was why he had disappeared from her dream, he had woken up.

"Steven..." She hugged him, and buried her face in his dark curly locks. "Steven I don't understand what's going on."

"I think Malachite is trying to talk to you."

"How would that be possible? Malachite isn't possible without Jasper, so how could she talk to me if we're not even fused..."

"Somehow we're connecting to each other through our dreams, and it seems to me like she wants to tell you something. Maybe she knows something about Jasper? A part of Malachite lives in you; a part of her lives in both of you! I think we should see what she has to say! Don't worry, I'll be there with you, so you don't have to be afraid." Steven hugged her back tightly.

"Alright."

Lapis laid on her back, and stared at the ceiling. This time she was having trouble falling asleep. She was terrified of what she had seen. The devastation of the war, and Pearl sacrificing herself needlessly for Rose Quartz. It was very sad, and weighed heavily against her heart. If Steven thought talking to Malachite would help her, then she would do it.

 _This time she hadn't even felt herself fall asleep. Instead when she opened her eyes she was staring directly into the face of her fusion counterpart, Malachite. Steven was next to her, standing his ground and staring up at the large green-banded fusion Gem. Malachite's hair was flowing wildly around her face, all four of her eyes were staring at Lapis, and her lips were parted slightly, showing off her sharp teeth._

" _I'm here now, what is it that you want to talk to me about?" Lapis asked, trying to find the courage within herself to face this part of herself that she had never had contact with before now._

 _Malachite laughed softly. Lapis looked down and realized this was the Malachite Jasper and her had first formed, the one with six arms, and no feet. She looked back up, feeling afraid and frozen in place on the fusion's large hand. The sense of foreboding wouldn't leave her, and it threatened to break her apart emotionally._

 _Before her eyes though, Malachite's form changed, her features becoming softer, her body becoming smaller, her arms changing to legs. She was now being held by the Malachite she recognized, the one that made her feel so good when she was a part of her._

" _You have to prove to her that fusion is beautiful." Malachite said, touching Lapis' cheek lightly with her thumb. "Or I'm going to disappear, and I'll never be able to see her again."_

" _Who?" Lapis asked, surprised at how gentle the fusion Gem's touch was against her cheek._

" _She's too afraid to reform. Seeing those creatures, what someone she trusted and looked up to did, has broken her. Together though, I know we can bring her back, and show her how wonderful it is to be a part of a fusion."_

" _I don't know how to contact her... She's still inside her gem..."_

 _Malachite held Lapis and Steven close to her, and chuckled at Steven's expression on his face when he looked up at the fusion. He loved giant women after all, fusions were so cool to him. She summoned her four large water wings and flew through the abyss. The darkness around them slowly changed, as Lapis noticed they were once again at the battlefield they had visited earlier. Malachite set them down on the ground._

 _Lapis walked wearily toward a Gem crouched down towards the ground. It was Jasper, gripping her head tightly; Lapis could see her body shaking. She didn't want to startle the large Gem, she was just so happy to finally have contact with her._

" _Fusion is a cheap tactic, Jasper. We don't need fusion to become strong. Fusing with another is disgusting, and it should make you feel disgusting. Do you understand?"_

 _Lapis cringed at the sound of Yellow Diamond's voice, echoing around them. She peered around the large Gem, and saw a hologram of Yellow Diamond speaking to a younger, smaller Jasper._

" _Yes ma'am. Fusion is an abomination." Young Jasper said happily, waiting for Yellow Diamond's approval._

" _Now, don't you forget that, and you'll be my greatest asset yet." Yellow Diamond cackled, crossing her arms in front of her chest. The two holograms fizzled in front of her eyes, and changed, showing an older Jasper, with shoulder length hair standing at attention in front of her Commander._

 _Yellow Diamond was holding her sword, pointing at some smaller Gems who were bound by their hands and feet and tossed on the ground by their boots. HoloJasper kept her fierce gaze forward, never breaking eye contact with her Commander. Her eyes were so intense; her pupils were all but slits, her mouth was upturned into a wild grin; her teeth sharp and dangerous looking._

" _These Gem's are traitors Jasper. They were fused together, living as one for many years. They fled homeworld, trying to flee to a distant planet, but my forces caught them. This is your test. Destroy them."_

 _Lapis watched in horror as HoloJasper destroyed each of the Gem's gems with reckless abandon, seemingly eager to please her Commander and prove her worth. Yellow Diamond gathered the shards, and stuffed them into her pocket, grinning devilishly at the orange Gem's speedy work._

" _Good."_

 _Once again the holograms changed, but this time, it was a scene she recognized all too well, because it was her and Jasper on Peridot's ship, when Jasper had danced with her. That was the first time they had unknowingly synchronized, the first time Lapis had felt the power of fusion building up inside of her, and then Jasper stopped dancing, ending the feeling from coming to fruition._

" _You're trying to find the good memories, aren't you, Jasper?" She asked aloud, placing her hand gently against the back of the large Gem's neck. She felt the muscles under her fingers tense, as Jasper jumped up and backed away from her._

" _You." She said, eyeing Lapis, Malachite and Steven. "You." She said softer, gentler; quieter. "Yellow Diamond was wrong, wasn't she Lapis."_

" _What are you talking about now?"_

" _About fusion, just being a tactic for battle. It's not about the power you feel, or about using that power to destroy things. It's about **feeling** , and the **relationship** between the two Gem's who fuse together."_

" _Fusing is a beautiful magic, that allows me to exist." Malachite said, stepping forward to interject before Lapis could respond. "Fusion is a powerful magic that **can** be used in the way Yellow Diamond described, creating monsters and unstable fusions for the sake of war. True fusion, the way some of us believe it, is an eternal symbolization of our love for one another, no matter what type of love that may be. Platonic, romantic, it matters not when it comes to love. For example, you may not love Peridot in the same way you love Lapis, but you loved her enough to fuse with her to save Lapis. That was beautiful. Don't you just feel wonderful when you're fused with the blue Gem, living and breathing and experiencing life through me?"_

 _Jasper seemed a little shocked that Malachite was talking to her in this way, watching the fusion Gem curiously, while trying to maintain her composure. Lapis noticed her fists starting to clench, as that understanding she just had upon her face vanished in an instant. She pointed one of her large fingers at Malachite and gritted her teeth angrily against them._

" _Fusion is disgusting! You're disgusting! No wonder they didn't allow it back on Homeworld... Yellow Diamond was right, how could I be so blind!"_

" _Jasper..." Lapis was so saddened by the turmoil that Jasper was going through, and she didn't know how to help her. Was she always going to struggle with the idea of fusion now? Were they never going to be able to fuse again? She didn't know what to do, she was so lost, so confused; she herself started to wish that it wasn't something she enjoyed so much..._

 _Malachite placed a firm hand on her shoulder, and she looked up into the fusion Gem's eyes, finally acquiring a little bit of understanding through her. Steven remained quiet, probably taking everything in at his own pace, he was more than likely just as lost as she was about the whole situation._

" _Jasper." Lapis ambled right up to the orange Gem and embraced her. "We don't have to fuse. We don't have to do anything. Just, come back to me okay? Come back to the gemlings, they need you."_

Lapis sat up, and wiped the tears from her eyes. The part of herself that ached so furiously in her chest, must have been Malachite; but she can't force Jasper to embrace fusion. She wouldn't force it upon her. Hopefully Jasper got her message, and understood her. She just couldn't stand there and watch her argue with herself over the topic anymore. It was too heartbreaking, and she felt weak.

 **JASPER**

Jasper was ready to return. She reformed from her gem, thudding onto the ground next Steven's bed. The gemlings woke up and Jazz stared at her. She felt a pang in her chest when she looked at this gemling, she could feel it's weakened state emanating through it's gem. Was it really going to starve itself just because she wasn't there? She picked Jazz up and the little gemling growled amicably at her. Lapis didn't say anything next to her, she instead handed her a crystal, which she took and held it out to the little jaspercub. It stared hungrily at it, and starting eating it, causing Lapis to let out a sigh of relief.

"I'm so happy." Lapis said, leaning her head against Jasper's arm.

"Lapis, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I left you here all alone with the gemlings, and I'm sorry I nearly caused little Jazz to starve herself... I didn't think they even liked me, and I figured they'd be better off without me."

"Don't be stupid, of course they like you. Just..."

"You guys stay here with Steven, and Jazz if you don't eat my weight in crystals you're going to be in big trouble when I return." Jasper put the cub down and took Lapis by her hand, pulling her down the stairs and outside.

"Jasper, where are we going?"

"Lapis, I realized something when you were in my mind, or whatever that was you and the kid were doing. I realized that I am _nothing_ without you. I can't help what Yellow Diamond and the Homeworld did to those Crystal Gem shards. I _can_ help how I see our fusion. Now, I just want to spend some time with you."

Lapis smiled at her. "Follow me." She ran towards the ocean, and ran atop it, leaving Jasper looking onward at her from the beach.

"Um."

"Come on!" She called, laughing excitedly.

Jasper placed a foot down on top of the water and was amazed that Lapis was able to manipulate it in a way that allowed her to walk atop of it. She followed the small blue Gem, ultimately curious as to where they could be going. Lapis looked back at her over her shoulder, and she felt her face flush at how beautiful the ocean Gem was, her eyes glinting with the light from the moon. Her heart fluttered against her chest when the small Gem stopped, and took her hands into her own, looking up at her with eyes full of love and trust...

"I want to show you the beauty that is fusion, Jasper, once and for all. I don't want you to be afraid anymore. Yellow Diamond told you fusion was disgusting because she never understood what it meant to be one with another Gem. She knew that fusion could destroy her, just like it eventually did when you and Peridot fused with each other to beat her. Won't you dance with me, Jasper?"

Jasper bit her bottom lip, and looked off the the side for a moment. Only a moment though. She pulled Lapis to her by her waist, the small Gem's back against her; Jasper lifting Lapis' hands into the air, running her own hands down them, across her chest and sides. Lapis swayed her hips and pointed her toes, falling to the side as Jasper caught her in a dip, then lifted her up into her arms. Lapis kissed her on the gem, before leaning back and sliding from her arms, regaining her footing on the water. She fell back against Jasper once more, reaching up and grabbing two locks of the larger Gem's hair, pulling her down into a long anticipated kiss.

Their bodies melded and became one again, Jasper opening her mind to Malachite, allowing her to truly _experience_ this fusion.

No words passed through her mind, as she continued dancing across the water, smiling and laughing to herself as her feet left ripples on the surface. The moonlight made the water sparkle; and she couldn't help but laugh at the wonderfully warm feeling growing in the pit of her stomach. She couldn't believe how freaked out she had felt before, and now that she was one with Lapis, she wasn't so alone; she wasn't so afraid. She was truly starting to understand the reasoning behind fusion, and why it was so important to these Earth dwelling Gems. For once she didn't feel disgusted, she felt _whole_ , and she loved every second she spent as Malachite.

Jasper was careful not to lose herself in Malachite's ever growing conscience, because she worried if she did, the fusion wouldn't let her defuse again. Right now, she needed to take it slow, a little at a time; especially if she really wanted to learn and understand more about fusion and all its properties. Before she only regarded fusion as a means to an end, a way to make herself stronger for fighting purposes. She had never fused for the sake of fusing before, without some kind of ulterior motive behind it. This fusion was different, and each time they fused, she felt like it was going to be a different experience for the both of them.

 _And that was okay with her._

She remembered defusing and holding Lapis in her arms, gazing into those azure blue eyes she adored looking into. Lapis giggled, her face flushed that deep dark blue that looked _so cute_ to her. She went in for another hungry kiss, the blue Gem happily meeting her half-way. She was so ecstatic, there was really only one thing she could think about at that moment. She tossed the blue Gem over her shoulder casually, and tromped up towards Steven's house with a new found spring in her step.

"Jasper, what are you doing?" Lapis asked, allowing herself to be carried into the house.

"Oh, you know." She responded simply, too embarrassed to just say what was on her mind.

She made it in front of the warp pad before being thrown backwards by an incoming warp. Amethyst, Pearl and Garnet were standing there, their faces full of an unknown anger she didn't understand.

"Where have you two been!?" Pearl demanded, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"We were-"

"Guys, I don't think they had anything to do with it, let's just ask them about it." Amethyst said, looking away shyly and tapping her foot against the crystal warp.

"No, I don't think they did it. Darn, we'll just have to keep looking." Garnet said quietly, clenching her fists to her sides.

"What's going on guys? Is something wrong?" Steven called down from his bad sleepily, obviously not wanting to be left out of this conversation.

"Something very bad has happened Steven. Very bad."


	8. Chapter 8

**JASPER**

"What happened?" Jasper demanded, gently placing the ocean Gem down onto her feet next to her. Steven came down from his bed, and they stood around in a circle around the warp pad staring at each other. Peridot stayed on the couch, not paying attention; her headphones on over her ears. Jasper could only see Garnet's face in a deep frown, and Amethyst didn't have much of an expression on her features. Pearl was a different story though; _Pearl looked absolutely terrified_ , clutching her ribs with a wide-eyed expression; beads of sweat trickling down the side of her face.

"It was my fault." Pearl said, her voice barely an audible whisper. They all looked at her, waiting for her to elaborate and explain what exactly she had meant.

"What, you said you didn't know how it had happened? Now you're saying it's your fault?" Amethyst said in disbelief, her arms swinging through the air wildly as she spoke. "What did you do?"

"I was... visiting the gem shards again... When I turned around, I was so fixated on it; it was glowing so brightly and I... I touched it and it popped." Pearl continued, bringing her hands down against her legs, and pulling at the fabric of her shorts. "Yellow Diamond reformed and she escaped."

"You've got to be joking me." Lapis said, looking around swiftly for her babies, and picking them up into her arms. "This is a joke, right?"

"It's not a joke! I'm so sorry I..."

"How many times have I told you _not_ to go into my room? There's a reason only I'm allowed in there. That, and you lied to us! I can't believe you." Garnet spoke angrily, taking a few steps back from the group, her fists clenched tightly to her sides. "I can't see her with my future vision, somehow she must be able to block it... We have to find her."

"Yeah P! Wow, You really messed up, worse that I ever have..." Amethyst looked up to Pearl, almost like she had felt bad for the white Gem.

Jasper was speechless. She was too enthralled by how the Gem's were treating Pearl, a Gem that was supposed to be one of their good friends. Everyone makes mistakes, and Jasper wasn't _horribly_ worried about Yellow Diamond being on the loose; her gem was cracked, so she would be severely weakened. Besides, what could she possibly do?

"Let me help you look-"

"No. You've done enough." Garnet interrupted Pearl, and her and Amethyst went on the warp pad, teleporting away without another word.

"Lapis, Peridot..." Pearl said softly, looking like she was going to start crying at any moment... "Steven..."

"Absolutely not! Come on." Lapis looked to Peridot, Steven, and Jasper. Jasper watched as Lapis put the gemlings onto the couch, before the three of them went up onto the warp pad. Pearl looked downcast as everyone shunned and dismissed her, and Jasper couldn't help but feel a little _sorry_ for her.

"Jasper?"

"I'll go with you, Pearl." She put a large hand onto Pearl's shoulder comfortingly. The white Gem looked up at her with an unreadable emotion in her eyes, until she shook her head and forced out a small smile.

"Alright Jasper."

Lapis shrugged, before her small party warped away.

"What about the gemlings? Can they stay here alone?" Pearl asked, looking over towards the couch.

"One sec." Jasper strode over to the couch, and put her hands on her hips. "Kit, you're in charge. Keep Jazz and Zuli safe. We'll be back after a little while, okay?"

Kit mewled at Jasper, and nodded. Her little Malakitten had gotten so big the last few days, she almost wondered if she were hogging all the crystals for herself; or if it was just something that happened with a gemling that was basically a permanent fusion. She shrugged internally, before joining Pearl on the warp pad. A flash of white light, and they appeared in the desert.

"I don't even know where to start! I figured we could just start here. There are so many places she could have gone, and I don't know if we'll ever find her." Pearl darted off ahead of Jasper, who was trying to stay calm and collected, not really sure if anything she could say could soothe this Gem. She hadn't really spent a lot of time with Pearl, so she had no idea how to interact with her. Generally, Pearl kept her distance from the orange Gem, giving her snooty looks when their paths crossed.

"What is that?" Jasper pointed towards a large sand colored building, shaped like an ancient temple. The wind and sand had eroded a lot of it, with its columns and structures disappearing with each lick of violent wind. The two Gems made their way towards the building as the wind speed started to pick up, sand lashing at Jasper's skin and leaving dark red welts along her arms.

"A sandstorm!? Come on Jasper, hurry!" Pearl goaded her, and she picked up her pace. They covered their faces with their hands and sprinted into the ancient temple; Jasper running right into Pearl who had stopped suddenly.

Jasper looked up to see large, ancient gem statues and fixtures upon the walls; gears made of gems and hieroglyphs adorning the walls. There were four Gem's carved into the wall, each Gem taking its place in the point of the diamond shape they made. Rose Quartz was carved into the bottom of the diamond, holding her arms up towards the center, her tears flowing down her cheeks. Hands were carved below her, reaching towards her, but not quite making it to her. Yellow Diamond was carved in the left point, sword point in the ground, knuckles adorning her fist, and a whip twirled around the intricate blade she was holding. The look on her face was hardened and emotionless; with many humanoid shapes surrounding her signifying the vastness of Homeworld's armies. To the right was Blue Diamond, holding a spiked mace over her shoulder, with gem tech surrounding her. Finally, on the top point of the diamond shape was White Diamond, Supreme Commander of the Diamond Authority on Homeworld. Jasper wondered if the other Diamonds realized Yellow Diamond had been subdued, and was now trapped here on Earth.

"Rose..." Pearl walked up towards the wall, and placed her palm against the carving of Rose Quartz, her fingers tracing along the lines of the fallen Gem's body.

Jasper walked up next to her, looking down at Pearl, and back up at the carving on the wall. Did Pearl miss Rose because she was her leader... or? Was it something more? She swore this Pearl was the strangest one she had ever met, she didn't act how other Pearl's acted, and it was very interesting to her.

"Rose Quartz was a great strategical tactician during the war." She said simply, her eyes darting back up towards the carving of Yellow Diamond.

"She was wonderful, yes. Come on, she could be here, let's have a look." Pearl turned her head a little, before turning to head down a nearby hallway. Jasper found herself wondering what this place was, and why it was here. Why did it have carvings of the Diamonds on it? What secrets lay hidden in this odd building hiding in the sand?

"Why did you join Rose Quartz when she defected?" Jasper asked as they ambled along, the corridor seeming to never end; the silence threatening to become overwhelming. "You couldn't have believed in this place like she did; immediately wanting to join her in protecting these... humans. How did she reprogram you to follow her?"

Pearl stopped walking, her fists clenching to her sides as she turned to glare up at Jasper. Jasper wasn't trying to be offensive, she just didn't want to beat around the bush. She wanted to know how a Pearl designed to obey orders; designed to be told what to do, had a will of her own. Her gem didn't look flawed, but this Gem, she was most definitely flawed. In her own way. She had a hard time deciphering what words sounded completely offensive, and blatantly right now, she didn't really care.

"When I was created, I knew I was different than the other Pearls. I had ideas, and I had free will. When the Diamond Authority found out about this, they threatened to have me destroyed. A Pearl with free will was dangerous. But Rose, she took pity on me, and offered me an escape serving her, and pleaded with the other Diamonds to allow me to serve her." The white Gem explained. Pearl turned and glared at Jasper, who took a step back into the wall.

A brick moved into the wall, and the floor beneath them gave way as they fell down a few levels into a black pit. Jasper landed on her back, the wind knocked completely from her; and Pearl landed on top of her. The smaller Gem picked herself up quickly and looked up to watch as the floor closed above them, shutting out the only light they had had. A beam of light shone from Pearl's Gem, lighting up the room they were now stuck in. Jasper sat up, and saw on the far side of the room there was a door.

"Rose Quartz wasn't always the perfect Gem you seem to think she was." Jasper muttered before standing up and wiping the sand from her body.

"Excuse me?" Pearl exhaled, shining the light from her Gem at her eyes and blinding her. Jasper covered her face, and Pearl looked away quickly. "Sorry."

"Didn't it even bother you at all how many Gems you destroyed during the war? You know, on my end of it, _you_ were the evil ones, and _I_ was the righteous one."

They came into a large room that was lit up only by torches with blue flames. Behind them the door became barred, preventing them from going back the way they came. Pearl seemed to take this opportunity to draw her spear and point it at Jasper, her eyes wide with hurt, and what Jasper saw as denial.

"Of course I know about all the Gems we destroyed; but we had to, to protect this planet and its living creatures. It's what Rose wanted, so I did my duty to serve her. I..."

"So, you blindly charged into battle over and over, only because Rose told you to? Sounds to me like you were brainwashed. Acting exactly how you were supposed to; maybe you weren't as defective as I originally thought."

Pearl jabbed her spear towards Jasper's chest, and she grabbed onto the blade as it sliced open her hands. She held fast though, preventing the spear from stabbing into her body.

"I'm not trying to say these things to upset you, what I want to know is how could someone like you, someone with a free will, allow herself to be _used_ over and over again. You seem much stronger than that, why don't you make your own path, without anyone telling you what to do?" She barked, throwing Pearl's spear to the side as she pulled out two more, twirling them around before charging her again.

"Just silence yourself! You don't know anything about Rose! She was kind, she was beautiful!"

She never realized how ruthless this Pearl could be. She was fast and determined, striking out at her, barely leaving her enough room to dodge her assault. Pearl lunged towards her, and Jasper side-stepped, grabbing hold of the handles of both her spears and tossing them off to the side. Pearl pulled one more spear out of her gem, and held it out inches from Jasper's neck. She had let her guard down; she had become too confident. She backed up against the wall, and swallowed, watching the Gem before her breathing heavily with sweat trickling down her cheeks. Her eyes shone with an anger Jasper hadn't seen from this Gem yet, even though they had lived together for several months.

"I love Rose Quartz." Pearl breathed, pushing the spear against Jasper's neck.

There it was. The truth. Pearl had recklessly thrown herself into battle for her matriarch, because she was in love with the pink Gem. That's the detail Jasper had missed, the one that explained everything to her. She felt a jolt of pain in her chest at this statement, and her head throbbed against her skull. Love made Gems and humans do stupid things, she had to admit.

"I know more about Rose Quartz than you might think." She spat, eyes becoming slits as she glared back down at the white Gem.

Pearl withdrew her spear and dropped it onto the floor. She hung her arms loosely to her sides, taking a step backwards as large tears spilled from her eyes.

"I never told her how I felt..." Pearl admitted to her softly. "Then she met _him_ , and I lost her forever. I... After the war I thought we would spend eternity together, and I was content serving her to show my affection to her. I didn't want to burden her with the knowledge of my feelings for her. She was too busy and I... didn't want to distract her."

"You spent thousands of years silently watching her, and then she fell in love with a human and gave up her physical form to become human herself?" Jasper asked, the whole idea of it was confusing to her. She understood love, she didn't understand what Rose had done.

"I just wanted her to be happy."

The room started to shake around them, as several gem monsters dropped from the ceiling. They were shaped like globs of jello, each with a gem buried in the center of their bodies. The creatures all combined into each other, creating a large gooey creature shaped like a beast with four legs. Goo tendrils stretched from the back of its body and wrapped around Pearl's feet, tripping her onto her stomach. She clawed at the ground as the tendril pulled her backwards; she went to pull a spear from her gem but was stopped when another tendril left its body to wrap around her wrist.

"Pearl!" Jasper called, diving for her hands but missing when the monster suddenly whipped her back and tossed her against the far wall. Jasper charged at the beast, but the monster's body was too soft, causing her fist to become stuck inside of it; the goo sticking to her hand and dragging her back.

"Jasper, try to reach its Gem!" Pearl screamed, slicing off more tendrils that attempted to grab onto her.

Jasper shoved her arm deeper within the creature, her fingers stretching to try and reach the green colored gem inside of it. The tips of her fingers were mere centimeters away before she felt the goo wrap around her torso and left her into the air, slamming her against the ceiling. Her skull slammed against the brick, juggling her mind around; causing her vision to blacken. She half- opened her eyes to watch Pearl shoot charged up energy at the creature, causing the gooey creature to explode in a mass of goo. The gem shot up and struck Jasper in the forehead, causing her to go unconscious.

 **LAPIS**

Lapis, Peridot, and Steven had found themselves on Mask Island, searching for any sign of Yellow Diamond's presence. At this rate, they were never going to find her; she literally could have gone anywhere, and why would she let herself be easily tracked? That would be sloppy of her, and she really wasn't one to make things easier for them. The fact that the Gem Commander had escaped made her feel extremely uneasy; weakened or not.

Steven had run off ahead of them, leaving Peridot and Lapis alone in front of a giant cracked geode. She made a mental note to herself to grab one with Jasper later, when they could form Malachite and carry it back for the gemlings. Malachite. _Malachite._

"Ugh, I don't see why we're _looking_ for trouble. Her Gem is cracked, can't we just let her roam around? This island is creepy." Peridot whined, sitting down on a log that was sitting on the ground in front of the geode.

"You're joking right? What if she finds a way to send a message to Homeworld? Again? Maybe her first message didn't work, and if she has the chance to send more, there's a chance that more Gems could come to Earth. This is bad Peridot, and I'm at my wits end." Lapis sat next to her and rested her elbows against her knees, placing her chin into her hands. "First I have the whole Malachite situation to deal with, and now Yellow Diamond?"

"Malachite. Yeah, how's that whole fusion thing going anyway?" Peridot asked, her fingers twirling in a circle in front of her. "I noticed you two have fused a lot more lately."

"It's so weird to me honestly. I love becoming Malachite. I love being a part of her, but something I've noticed, is the fact that I seem to lose myself in her a lot more lately. She has her own conscience now, and it's... scary. What if we fuse sometime, and she doesn't want us to defuse?"

Lapis turned to look at Peridot who she caught gaping at her. Peridot blushed and looked back down at her twirling fingers; Lapis finding this behavior odd.

"I never had the chance to thank her for protecting me from Sugilite." Peridot stated simply, pulling her fingers back into their proper position. "I don't understand why she would bother."

"Peridot that's silly, you're our friend." Lapis chuckled. "Of course we would want to protect you, we weren't going to just let you be squished by Sugilite."

Peridot stood up and turned away from the ocean Gem, and Lapis couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah, that's... right."

"Let's just go back to the house, I don't think Yellow Diamond is here."

Peridot turned and tromped back to the warp pad, standing atop it and crossing her arms to the best of her abilities. Lapis felt this air of awkwardness between them; she didn't quite understand it. Steven appeared at the warp pad at the last second, jumping into the stream before they warped back to his house. When they arrived, Kit, who had been sitting in front of the warp pad looked up at the green Gem and smiled.

"Mommy!" Kit pointed at Peridot. Lapis felt like she was hit with a bolt of lightning. Did she just hear her gemling call Peridot... _Mommy?_

"No Kit, Peridot's not your mommy!" Lapis frowned, picking up the gemling and holding her out in front of her, staring into her multicolored green eyes.

"Mommy." Kit said softly, reaching her hands out towards Lapis' face. This made Lapis smile, almost willing to forget her little malakitten's slip of words. "Mommy." Kit held her arms out towards Peridot.

"No! No, no, no, no, no!" Lapis screeched, completely and utterly green with envy.

Kit saw the anger in her eyes, and heard the anger in her voice, and started to cry. She crawled out of Lapis' hands and ran to the kitchen area, and wailed with sadness. Water started to spray from the sink, and Kit waved her arms wildly, sending a stream of water right into Lapis' face, knocking her off the warp pad.

"Ah!" Lapis cried out manipulating the water away from her, and back towards the sink. Apparently her little Malakitten was going to be a water manipulator just like her, and probably Zuli. Kit bawled even louder, until the stream of water died away when Peridot picked the little gemling up into her arms.

Lapis watched as Peridot held the gemling close to her, smiling and making cute faces at her. Her anger melted away, and she actually started to feel happy at the sight. Peridot hadn't even shown such care and attention to any of them before, and seeing her care about her gemling actually warmed her heart.

"Kit, no more crying okay? I'm not your mommy, think of me more as your... Aunty? It think that's a good human term to use in this situation. Jasper and Lapis are your 'mommies', okay? Come on, let's go find the other two and take a nap."

With that, Peridot and Kit gathered the other two gemlings, and the four of them curled up on Steven's bed. Lapis leaned against the wall and exhaled her breath, wondering what Jasper and Pearl were doing, and if they had found Yellow Diamond.

 **JASPER**

Jasper opened her eyes to see Pearl kneeling over her, eyes closed like she was thinking. She sat up on her elbows and looked around, seeing they were still in the same room as before. She fingered the middle of her forehead, where she felt some sort of bandage over the spot on her forehead. She groaned a little, her forehead still stinging with pain at her touch.

"Pearl, we have to get out of here. I don't think Yellow Diamond is here." She said, sitting up and passing a glance over the white Gem.

"Would you, be so kind as to, tell me about Rose from before the war?" Pearl inquired softly, her eyes remaining shut, and her hands remaining clenched against her shorts.

Jasper was a little taken aback that this Gem wanted to know more about the Rose Quartz she had known, before she had defected and started the Civil War. Jasper didn't want to talk about it. She didn't want to think about those memories she had buried in the back of her mind.

"No." She spoke bluntly, standing up and summoning her Crash Helmet.

"But, Jasper I-"

"I said no, I don't want to talk about the war, I'm done talking about Rose Quartz right now. Can't you just respect that?"

"You're the one who wanted to tell me about her in the first place, and now you don't even want to talk about it? I'm willing to listen, I'm willing to do as you say, just tell what she was like!" Pearl was practically begging her now, chasing after her with a thick desperation in her words.

"You just don't get it, do you!" Jasper yelled, before curling into a ball and using her spin dash attack to break straight through the wall into a hidden chamber. This chamber was freezing cold; the floor covered in ice. She could see her breath in front of her as respired. In front of her was a large statue of a Blue Gem, one she didn't recognize. Embedded in the stone swords it was holding were two large Gems. Jasper grabbed both of them with her hands and pulled, until they both were released and sitting in her palms. She held them out to Pearl who had appeared behind her, and the smaller Gem bubbled them away.

The building around them started to fall apart fast, Jasper caught large chunks of ceiling that threatened to crush the both of them. When she saw the crack in the ceiling that signified their impending doom, she threw her body over Pearl, and clutched her against her, taking the brunt of the boulders with her body.

"Jasper..." Pearl gasped, clutching the fabric of Jasper's shirt between her slim fingers.

When Jasper was sure the building had finished collapsing, she hoisted the sandstone blocks off of them and threw them off to the side with reckless abandon. If Yellow Diamond by chance _had_ been there, then she was poofed for sure now. Jasper didn't really believe the Gem Commander was there, she was sure she would know when they found her; she wouldn't be able to resist telling them she was around, Jasper was sure of that.

Pearl and her made it back to the warp pad; Pearl touching Jasper's arm lightly before they stepped up onto the rounded Gem technology. Jasper stopped, and waited for the begging to resume where it had left off.

"Jasper, at first I wasn't sure about trusting you at all. I'll admit that, up until now, I didn't respect you. I didn't want you to be here. If it weren't for Steven, I probably would have taken it upon myself to make sure Garnet would have destroyed your gem. But.." Pearl sniffed loudly, wiping the tears quickly from her eyes before they could travel down her cheeks. "What I'm trying to say now, is I'm sorry. I'm sorry for pushing you to tell me about Rose, I'm sorry for dragging you into this mess I've made. You were the only one who offered to go looking for Yellow Diamond with me, and... Thank- You."

Jasper blushed at this apology, embarrassed by Pearl's heartfelt words and kindness towards her. She nodded to her, before they entered the warp stream together.

Maybe someday she would enlighten Pearl with her war stories, or her remembrances of Rose Quartz. For today though, all she really wanted to do was relax.

Xxx

All six Gems, not including Steven sat around in the living area, not looking at each other. Jasper, Lapis, and Amethyst all sat in front of the window; while Peridot, Pearl and Garnet sat on the couch next to the stairs. None of them spoke. Jasper figured they were all thinking of the same thing. Where was Yellow Diamond, and what was she going to do next?

"I'm sorry for breaking the bubble." Pearl said aloud, catching the attention of all the Gems around her.

"It's okay P, we all fuck up sometimes."

"Amethyst, that doesn't help." Garnet chastised the violet Gem.

"We're all going to die." Peridot whined.

"Don't be daft." Lapis hissed, shooting daggers across the room at the green Gem.

"It's fine." Jasper commanded attention with the sternness in her voice; as the rest of the Gems turned to look at her. "Pearl, I believe even if you wouldn't have been there, Yellow Diamond would have magically found a way out of the bubble anyway. We were stupid to think we could just lock her away and pretend all that stuff never happened. We'll keep looking for her, but there's nothing we can do about the past now. _It's in the past."_

 _It's in the past._ What had happened in the past, may have defined who each of them were now, but it didn't mean they had to let those feelings and experiences ruin their lives today. Why had it taken her so long to understand that?

"Guys!" Steven came in through the front door holding up what appeared to be small childrens pajamas. "Look what I found! It's a dinosaur onesie!"

"A what?" Jasper raised her eyebrow at the small human boy.

"Where's Kit? I want her to wear it, it would be so cute."

Peridot held up the little malakitten, who chomped on one of her fingers playfully. Peridot held the gemling tightly as Steven stuffed her into it; a lime green onesie with a hood that pulled up over the gemlings head and had little teeth on the edge. It even had a large tail.

"Oh look, now she really is a little monster." Peridot said sarcastically, putting the gemling down on her feet.

"Mommy!" The gemling said, running over to Jasper and hugging her leg.

"Jasper, you've gone starry-eyed." Lapis laughed, picking up the gemling and putting her in Jasper's lap.

She was completely okay with it.


End file.
